Editing Payphone (section)

===Spain===
Telephones were a monopoly of the national government in [[Spain]]. Payphones took a slug or ''ficha'', a piece of metal with two troughs in it, making it hard to counterfeit. Payphones were typically found in bars, restaurants, and stores, never freestanding. Phones would accept some five ''fichas'' at a time (the exact number varied depending on phone model), showing through a plastic window the number remaining, and return unused ones to the customer.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

An older and simpler system was to use a mechanical counter, the ''marcador de pasos'', which automatically counted units of time called ''pasos''. The duration of each ''paso'' depended on the distance of the call, and its cost could vary by time of day. At the conclusion of a call a human attendant would collect the appropriate payment. This system survived in small hotels at least until the 1970s.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Spain also had ''locutorios'' ("speaking places"), where a person could make and pay an attendant for phone calls. ''Locutorios'' diminished in the 21st century, as the country moved to [[direct distance dialing]] and [[Mobile phone|mobile phones]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Buck |first1=Tobias |title=Migration: The drain from Spain |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f7bdd5ce-995e-11e3-91cd-00144feab7de |access-date=December 25, 2023 |work=Financial Times |date=February 20, 2014}}</ref>