When Cash Was King

by Calla Jones Corner

Can we honestly do without cash?

I’ve been reflecting on all the ways cash has been replaced and may soon become obsolete.

It was the local boulanger here in my French village that got me thinking; the bakery has installed a machine into which one puts in euro bills – any change comes out in another machine. The vendeuse need never touch your money. Pretty soon, I reckon, she will be unemployed, and the bakery will only have to bake – that is, if there are any boulangeries left. Supermarkets do a so-so job of baking bread. And pastries. The French will never be out of croissants, baguettes, and tartes, certainly not in my lifetime.

But in my grandchildren’s?

Happening (almost) All Over the World

Penny and pound coins are disappearing in the United Kingdom. It can be assumed that what is happening in the U.K. is also happening in many countries.

Not in India, however; ever since the government there voided its large-denomination currency notes in hopes of battling the ills of tax evasion, counterfeiting, and terrorism, there has been a shortage of paper bills. The squeeze has been particularly painful for the poor, who often don’t have bank accounts or access to credit cards and whose lives depend on the tangible exchange of currency. Untouchables (the lowest Indian caste), it seems, ironically, need to touch actual cash to survive.   

Since 2015, digital payments in the U.K. have outnumbered those in cash. Those that push cash over the EM (electronic money) say a cashless society will be magnificently convenient with goods and services delivered directly to the door and one’s electronic device: no fumbling for change, just tap and go.

When Harrod’s no longer accepts cash, then I’ll know that cash is dead, at least in the U.K.

What You See is What You Get

We should worry; physical money possesses worth far above its face value. Actual physical money, in the hand, teaches us its true value: what you see is what you get. Very importantly, cash can’t be hacked!

Cash is the great leveler. Every penny or bill sits the same in every hand, identical in value and appearance. Every child who decides to empty his or her piggybank surely realizes that there is a finite quality to this first windfall. Above all, spending cash requires physical contact with others, eyes meeting eyes, money changing hands.

I must admit, however, that going to Amazon to purchase what may also be available in a store in Beaune, the nearest town to me, is so easy that I prefer it to having to find a parking place and keeping an eye on time to avoid spending three euros if I overstay a half an hour.

Guilt has been so ingrained in our culture that we can’t win; either we get with the digital revolution and don’t waste gas and pollute the air by going downtown or shop at the few small shops that still exist (and ending up spending more).   

Shopping locally was, as in Britain and most civilized societies, part of the local color and culture; shopkeepers were one’s friends in small town America and elsewhere in the world. Even in large cities, like New York, residents tended to shop in their neighborhood, as did I when we lived there between 1999 and 2003. My local grocer was Korean, my shoemaker Italian and my manicurist Vietnamese. When shopping locally in cities one comes across a true measure of our immigrant society.

There Are no Secrets Anymore

Until I became a widow, if I wanted to buy my husband a present on the internet, the notification of my purchase would come through on his laptop, as well as mine, as we shared many of the same websites (to be frugal). No surprise gift there!

Impulsive gifts of money will become impossible; no more helping a fellow passenger with a bus fare, no loose change to charity or the homeless.  Cash keeps options open: it’s the lifeblood of the town or village fête, school fundraiser or a garage sale.

A few years ago, my niece, Nancy, e-mailed me to ask if I would buy Girl Scout cookies from her daughter Jessica. What a palaver.  I had to submit my credit card info to a six-year-old, and then pay for the not negligible shipping to Lucy, my daughter in L.A.

When Girl Scouts no longer get out of the house and ask their neighbors to support a worthy cause, I’ll know that not only has this fun, annual exercise in basic business vanished for good but a once sweet cause has turned sour to many. When lemonade stands disappear, I’ll know cash has become extinct.

Just as bad is that the lack of cash means the most fundamental aspects of etiquette are under siege. Tipping in restaurants is changing beyond recognition. An article in The Spectator pointed out that, “in simpler times any amount of cash, warmly generous or pointedly small, could be left furtively as a bespoke reward or Parthian shot.”

Coinage is also an emblem of good luck if found by chance, cast into wishing wells, or slid under a loafer’s toe slit.  What will happen to the wishing wellers at the Trevi fountain who travel to Rome hoping for a miracle?

No Longer a Flip of a Coin

How is the coin of indispensable arbitration of fairness (heads or tails) going to be replaced? It’s been around since Roman coins depicted the Emperor’s head on one side and a ship on the other, “caput aut navis – head or ship

Many sports cannot begin without the flip of a coin. A coin flip got the Wright brothers off the ground. A coin toss opens Wimbledon, and the Masters finalists flip a coin for the first drive.  What other ubiquitous object so decisively settles disputes?

Recently, I came across my father’s passport. Inside were a bunch of old banknotes from the countries in which he’d carried out his assignment to cover events in WW II. These notes are mostly Chinese, some with Sun Yat-Sen’s head, the first Chinese President after the fall of the Emperor. They are in dominations from 5 yuan to 1000 yuan; they do have some value still as collectibles.

Finding these notes and others raises some questions in my mind that I wish I’d asked my father. Why is there a one-dollar banknote from Manila? His passport doesn’t have a visa for going there.

Another family story now intrigues me. My Swedish grandfather Carl’s framed one dollar note that hung on the wall in my grandparents’ apartment over our garage in Weston, Connecticut, was supposed to be the first dollar he ever made in America. That’s not possible as the note was issued in 1917 and Carl landed at Ellis Island in 1900 finding work very soon after. Was this bill issued as a collectible? On eBay it would fetch at least $100. I wish I’d asked my taciturn grandfather so many questions about his life; that would have been priceless.

Hamilton Stays, Tubman Goes

The Queen and now the King are the mainstays of British coins, but coins abound in symbols of the union: the medley of Tudor roses, thistles, ostrich feathers and lions still circulate, now jostling with the shads of the Royal Arms. These numismatic quirks reveal the strata of history that shaped the United Kingdom.

In 2016, the U.S. mint was going to replace Alexander Hamilton’s handsome face on our $10 bill with a black woman of historical significance. Harriet Tubman, the first black feminist, was the overwhelming choice for a replacement. Quite an uproar ensued between present-day feminists and traditionalists. How could the father of our nation’s monetary system not be honored on the most circulated of our bills, the latter argued?

The beef was finally decided by a visit of Lin-Manuel Miranda to the Secretary of the Treasury. Miranda is the very talented and articulate creator of the enormously popular Broadway show “Hamilton.” He is black as is the show’s cast. With Hamilton’s image now secure on our currency, perhaps it will serve as a reminder of our unique history and that we should not rely on racism to teach it. As long as we still have a tangible currency, perhaps we still have a civilization.

Surely, that alone is a case for cash.

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