Transitory Charms

Thea Grant, MTA, MTA Token, Subway Token, NYC Subway TokenConsider how many times this coin has traveled up and down the length of Manhattan Island and its associated boroughs, carrying the citizens of the Big Apple in great looping fashion along the tracks of their lives:

To work.  To drink.  To fuck.  To sleep.

50 million copies of the “Large Y” variety subway token were minted by the MTA between 1970 and 1980; today, a handful of them have marked a long and winding course to the hands of Brooklyn artist Thea Grant, who transforms them into necklaces and earrings and things so the modern New Yorker (or New York enthusiast) might continue to enjoy them readily.

Someone stick one under my tongue when I die, so that I may always find my way back across the Hudson, to the City.

NYC, NYC Subway Token, MTA Subway Token, MTA, Large Y Subway Token, Thea Grant

NYC Subway Token Necklace, Thea Grant at the Brooklyn Flea.

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