The vanishing arcade redemption token: intermediate digitization and commercialization of local gaming exonumia

ABSTRACT This article examines vintage arcade redemption tokens, circulating from approximately the mid-20th century through the early 2010s as a communicative local exchange medium. The tokens are described in composition, color, and marking as representative of a particular local establishment, where, in combination with tickets and receipts, they facilitated exchange of players’ money into often nominal prizes, generating profit for the amusement arcade owner. Such tokens represented symbolic and social interaction with specific arcades, who created their own privately issued redemption currency, not freely convertible to cash. Sensory experience, including sight, feel, and sound of the tokens, was part of gameplay and exchange experience. These ephemera reflected an atemporal relationship with a particular place, extended by five types of symbols (nautical, amusement, local branding, nationalist, and general gaming), and imagined windfalls. Metal redemption tokens have largely been replaced with digital redemption systems, including ticket-based systems, newer plastic chips, and prize cards; location-specific symbols have been replaced with images from popular copyrighted media properties. The article serves to document the use, experience, and eventual retirement of these tokens, particularly in New Jersey, and calls for their cataloging and preservation as cultural objects. Exonumia may be studied as communicative media through a media archeology approach, as newer redemption items reference copyrighted media properties.