The "Compagna di tutti i giorni" (Everyday Companion) series, also called by collectors with the name "Wallet" or "Black card", is certainly the one that until today has been printed in the largest number of…
History of Italian cards (5): the “Carta Infinita”
In the stores all over Italy, around the middle of 1991, and at the same time as the Fasce Orarie, a new type of ordinary card appears to replace the previous card: it is the…
History of Italian cards (4): the Tourist Series
In the first months of 1989 five experimental telephone cards of 10.000 lire were issued by SIP, four with a deadline of 31.12.89 and one with a deadline of 30.06.90, with the main purpose of…
History of Italian cards (3): Fasce Orarie
On the occasion of the Turin Motor Show of 1987, held in April at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, six new experimental telephone cards are sold to the public, three of 5000 and three of 10,000…
History of Italian cards (2): the “white” and the “red” cards
In 1985, while SIDA-type phones with yellow blue vertical cards were spreading nationwide, Sip decided to proceed with the experimentation of a new type of additional blue card reader, to be added to existing telephones.…
History of Italian cards (1): the “yellow-blue” SIDA
In 1976, in Italy, the first prepaid calling card was born: in Rome, more precisely in the public telephone area of the Villa Borghese Galoppatoio, the first magnetic card phones were installed. The choice of…
Italy, 1976: the first in the world
The first phonecard issued and sold to the public is Italian. It was issued in 1976 but no one at that time thought it was the starting of a new hobby that twenty years later…
