What year did they first award the Tony award?

Question:What did the winners receive?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: What did the winners receive?

The first Tony awards were in 1947. They didn't give out awards the women who won got a Silver compact case and The men got silver cigarette lighters. Times sure have changed

The first awards ceremony was held on April 6, 1947, at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City.
it was not until the third awards ceremony in 1949 that the first Tony medallion was actually given to award winners

EDIT:
During the first two years of the Tonys (1947 and 1948), there was no OFFICIAL Tony Award. The winners were presented with a scroll and, in addition, a money clip, a cigarette lighter (for the men) or a compact (for the women).

The Tony Awards made their official debut at a dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1947.
Eleven Tonys were presented in seven categories, and there were eight special awards, including one for Vincent Sardi, proprietor of the eponymous eatery on West 44th Street. Big winners that night included Jos Ferrer, Arthur Miller, Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal, Elia Kazan and Agnes de Mille.

Winners receive the Tony Awards medallion which dates to 1949, the third year of the awards. Designed by Herman Rosse, it is a silver disk depicting the masks of comedy and tragedy on one side and the profile of Antoinette Perry, the awards' namesake, on the other. All nominees receive certificates.

The award was founded by the American Theatre Wing in 1947 at the suggestion of a committee of theatrical producers headed by Brock Pemberton, but it was not until the third awards ceremony in 1949 that the first Tony medallion was actually given to award winners