The item presented here is a public payphone, which allowed calls to be made once the caller had paid by inserting a coin or token in the appropriate slot. The automation inside the device tested the physical properties of the inserted object, such as its dimensions, weight, and magnetic properties. If they were within the required ranges, appropriate for the required means of payment, the device would allow the call to be made or continued.
Payphones manufactured by the Telkom-Telos enterprise in Kraków were commonplace on Polish streets from the early 1960s. The AWS 7 model is the last design of this type. It has many common characteristics with the earlier and far more ubiquitous AWS 6. Like its predecessor, the device was equipped with automation based on logical integrated circuits (without a microprocessor) and a numerical keypad. The electronics, however, were simplified, the mechanical bell was replaced by an electronic one, and the capability of working with modern exchanges that used tone dialling was added.
Payphones used in the 1990s used tokens. This was because of the high inflation and depreciation of money, which led to the temporary withdrawal of coins from circulation. Coins were not reintroduced until the redenomination of the zloty in 1995. In the second half of the 1990s, token-operated payphones began to gradually disappear from the Polish streets. They were replaced with imported payphones equipped with electronic card readers.