臺灣的代用幣 : Taiwan's tokens[sic].
By 袁明達 ; YUAN Mingda. Taibei shi : by the author, 2016.
ISBN 978-986-94062- 0-8. Soft cover, 207 pages, color photographs. Price : 600NTD(1).

That paragraph was written in September, 2016, as I was preparing anarticle on the chronology of Taiwanese tokens. Three months later, theTaiwan token-collecting community was surprised and delighted by thepublication of YUAN Mingda's Taiwan's tokens[sic].

This book publishes the token collection that Yuan has dedicated morethan twenty years to build, and it provides the distilled research findingsthat he has managed to ferret out from various corners during the sametime frame. Paging through this volume is equivalent to taking a voyagethrough the erstwhile uncharted waters of Taiwan tokens, and with Yuan atthe helm, a uniquely informative journey ensues.

Yuan archives nearly 700 Taiwan tokens - metal, plastic and paper - ina quarto-sized tome, printed on glossy paper, and divided into nine mainheadings. I list these because their format and composition may vary fromthe chapter titles usually encountered in the west. They include: 1) UnitedStates military; 2) the public sector, comprised of public park, telephone,transportation and government-issued tokens; 3) children's playgrounds; 4)department stores; 5) zoos; 6) amusement parks; 7) hotels; 8) industrialenterprises, which encompasses banking, cruise ship, bowling alley, golfand batting range, and restaurant tokens; and 9) early video arcade tokens.These are followed by three pages of early Republic tokens, with anemphasis on Shanghai; seven pages of miscellaneous world tokens; andfour pages of Taiwanese paper tokens.

For more information on the Token and Medal Society, see:
http://www.tokenandmedal.org/