It was possible to tap-dial calls that way out of some pay phones without the coin. I would not do that now (more honest now) but that seemed a cool trick at the time (mid seventies).
By the seventies touch tones were available most places in the USA. But in many locales all they did was to trigger pulse dialers on the telephone poles.
Anyway, tt must've become an institution by the time Sugarloaf recorded this ditty...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4njPe2_rho (enjoy watching an old rotary phone assemble itself in this vid)
ff