The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the New York City buses and subways, occasionally issue limited-edition MetroCards to celebrate special occasions.
Previously, the MTA has issued cards to commemorate the New York City Library’s 125th Anniversary and 110 years of the subway and promotional cards for the Brooklyn Nets and the opening of the 2nd Avenue subway line.
While the MTA is phasing out the MetroCard in favor of the new tap-to-pay OMNY system, the cards are still available. For a limited time, starting on May 21st, you’ll be able to find a neighborhood legend memorialized on a MetroCard.
The MTA will sell a limited-edition of 50,000 MetroCards remembering The Notorious B.I.G. from ticket machines at Lafayette Av (C), Clinton-Washington Avs (C & G), and Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr stations located around his old Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood on what would have been his 50th birthday.
A bit of Broadway trivia. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s inspiration for the song “Ten Duel Commandments” in Hamilton was Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments.”
B.I.G. joins David Bowie as the only people memorialized on MetroCards after their death. Other celebrities with MetroCards include Paul McCartney and Wu-Tang Clan (whose cards were sold at the South Ferry Terminal, close to the ferry from their respective homes on Staten Island). These cards were issued to promote album releases, museum exhibitions or TV specials featuring the artists.
The MTA says that the B.I.G. cards will be randomly distributed in MetroCard machines at the selected stations and there’s no promise you’ll get one right away. New MetroCards cost $1 so if you want a Biggie Smalls MetroCard, it could cost a few bucks.
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