SEPTA ending token sales at third-party retailers this summer

Sales of the soon-to-be-relic at third-party retailers will be discontinued beginning July 15, with sales of its magnetic stripe Weekly TransPasses to follow shortly after on July 30, SEPTA announced in a news release earlier this week.

Lailani King, 16, holds up a token at the Spring Garden subway station on the Broad Street Line.Read moreGENEVA HEFFERNAN / Staff Photographer

by Patricia Madej

Published May 17, 2018, 11:14 a.m. ET

The end of the SEPTA token really is upon the Philadelphia region.

Sales of the soon-to-be-relic at third-party retailers will be discontinued beginning July 15, SEPTA said this week.

The next stage of the token phase-out comes after SEPTA stopped selling the coins to individual passengers in late April, encouraging customers to switch to more modern methods of payment, including the SEPTA Key and QuickTrips.

>> READ MORE: Eulogy for the SEPTA token

There are 191 third-party retailers that sell SEPTA tokens, including grocery stores like Shop Rite, Acme, and Fresh Grocer, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said. Passengers will still be able to use their tokens for the foreseeable future.

Also in July, third-party retailers will stop selling magnetic-stripe Weekly TransPasses. Those sales end July 30.

Don't have a SEPTA Key card of your own yet? While they are available at kiosks and sales offices, SEPTA is working on increasing availability at places like grocery stores and pharmacies. A database of all retailers where the SEPTA Key can be purchased is available on the agency's website.

SEPTA Key cards can now be used on trolleys, buses, and subways, and should be able to be used for Regional Rail trips later this year.

Philadelphia is the last major city where transportation tokens are still used. Those who are already feeling the nostalgia have no reason to fear, though — artisans from around the region are preserving tokens in jewelry, keychains, and cufflinks.