Telecom companies have also taken advantage of phone cards to place advertising on them, or to feature celebrity portraits, artwork, or attractive photography to increase the appeal of the cards to consumers. This practice, combined with the disposability of the cards (encouraging individuals to purchase multiple cards), has led some people to start collecting phone cards as a hobby.
The hobby is called "fusilately" in the UK and a collector is known as a "fusilatelist" ; in the USA it is called "telegery". Phonecards have been collected worldwide since the mid 1970's and peaked in the mid 1990s. At its height, over 2 million people collected phonecards.
Many web sites exist that are dedicated to this hobby, some of which offer catalogs and show the stories behind the cards. Colnect is a site providing the world's most extensive online phonecards catalog[
The hobby has been in decline (in some countries) due to the some telecom companies ceasing to supply phonecards
Source: Wikipedia
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