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First Australian Phone Cards
Since phone cards were first introduced in Italy far in 1976, a great number of Countries, over 200 now, have adopted a telephone system based on pre-paid phonecards, and this number is still growing day by day. So, many collectors have started to collect the first cards issued by each Country, and this kind of collection have become quite popular. Even if it's true that several first issues are still available and not difficult to obtain, many other ones are quite hard to find and high priced.
Phone cards were introduced into Australia in late 1989 when an engineering field trial was conducted in Geelong, Victoria by Telecom Australia. Two sets of 3 cards each had been issued on the occasion and 50,000 of each card were printed.
 
 
 
First New Zealand Phone Cards
Having decided on the GPT system of cards and cardphones Telecom New Zealand began trialing the system in early May 1989, inside two military installations near Christchurch.
Five cards, with values of $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 were produced especially for the trial, and each card had the same design showing a colour photograph of the Chief Post Office in Christchurch. As all the cards that were not sold, or used by technicians, were officially destroyed, the quantities really distributed were as follows: $2: 11,021; $5: 7,254; $10: 5,775; $20: 2,576; $50: 863.
© Ephonecards
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