refusing to accept cash

February 19th, 2018 at 1:31:15 PM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Face
You don't even have to limit it to disasters. The Blackout of '03 just *bloop* happened.


Ice storm in the same year. I forget if the grocery store was cash only, but was on "dim light" meaning it was probably on its own generators. I forget if they were cash only, but it might have been. That was TWO blackouts that lasted at least 24 hours in one year. Strange, but I lived it.
The President is a fink.
February 19th, 2018 at 1:49:11 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
The guy who Catch Me if You Can is about,
the con man who has worked for the FBI
for 40 years, says debit cards are for chumps.
He has never owned one nor have his kids.
He uses CC's for everything. Debit card fraud
linked to your bank account can wipe you
out overnight, not so with a CC.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
February 19th, 2018 at 4:28:41 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Face
It all comes down to how risk adverse you are. My cards are carried loose with all manner of BS in my pockets, so a too-scratched stripe is always a concern. As is a crack of the card itself. $20 is the difference between a regular day and being stuck out of state 2hr away from anyone you know.


No government, not even Sweden, wants to see cash vanish completely at this time. Sweden just uses a lot less compared to other countries of similar GDP/capita.

Over 88% of cash in Japan is in the highest denomination banknote. Probably an extreme for countries around the world.
Britain is very adverse to large banknotes, and only 20% of the cash is in the biggest value banknote (the 50 pound note)

If S. Korea abolishes coins, which in turn greatly reduce the number of small value banknotes, still 78% of the value of cash is in the largest value banknote introduced only in 2009. South Korea is very afraid of counterfeiting and in many ways considered electronic transfers to be safer.


Cash per capita converted to USD as of end of 2016
$9,516 Switzerland (59.4% in largest denomination worth $981.55)
$7,341 Hong Kong SAR
$7,214 Japan (88.3% largest denomination worth $85.42)
$5,242 Singapore
$4,671 United States (76.5% in US$100)
$3,579 Euro area ---------------------------------------
$2,379 Australia (43.4% in AUD$100 and 44.3%in AUD$50)
$1,788 Canada (50.4% in CAD$100)
$1,678 Saudi Arabia
$1,584 Korea (77.9% in largest denomination worth $41.37)
$1,429 United Kingdom (20.5% in largest denomination worth $61.56
$989 Russia
$689 Sweden -----------(60.8% in second largest denomination worth $55.17)
$565 Mexico
$444 Turkey
$346 Brazil
$151 India
$131 South Africa
February 19th, 2018 at 4:37:56 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Coins?
Just the cost of handling and counting them should discourage their use.
many cities went to parking placards on the car visor rather than installing, emptying and repairing/replacing parking meters.
Vegas casinos used to have coin counting machines all over the place, no longer.

Coins lead to absurd situations: One pharmacist offering aspirin bottles for a nickel and a competing pharmacist handing out free nickels. Or that Texas dollar bill changer that was intentionally set to return an extra ten cents each and every time.
February 19th, 2018 at 5:17:09 PM permalink
petroglyph
Member since: Aug 3, 2014
Threads: 25
Posts: 6227
Quote: Pacomartin
Over 88% of cash in Japan is in the highest denomination banknote. Probably an extreme for countries around the world.
Britain is very adverse to large banknotes, and only 20% of the cash is in the biggest value banknote (the 50 pound note)
I did a short search for an article about floatom and Jetsom coming over to the West coast and Alaska.My google isn't as good as it used to be.


It seems several home safes floated over in the debris, the article IIRC spoke of how much Japanese residents didn't trust the banks, the article also had pictures of floating home safes? I hadn't considered how airtight safes would react in a Tsunami.
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury. GW
February 22nd, 2018 at 6:55:44 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569


A copy of one of the WWII forged banknotes by Jewish calligraphers imprisoned by the Nazis. Nearly 10% of the circulation of the UK was forged causing the Bank of England to issue £1 banknotes with a security thread. Britain had no choice except to recall all notes worth more than £5. Even today, the £50 banknote circulates in relatively small quantities and the £100 banknote is only issued by a bank in Scotland.

South Korea issued 5,000 and 10,000 won banknotes in 1972 and 1973. When the 10,000-won was first issued it was worth roughly US$25. Currency collapse meant that the 10,000-won note was worth a low of US$5.09 in December 1997, and today it is worth US$9.28. Fear of counterfeiting made the government reluctant to issue a higher value note. Finally on June 23, 2009 after 36 years, the Bank of Korea released the 50,000-won note.



While it is generally believed that electronic transfers make petty counterfeiting much more difficult, it remains to be seen if a large scale hack of unprecedented proportions can be pulled off with e-money.
April 4th, 2018 at 9:23:15 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Slashdot reports major article in the guardian on Sweden's trust of their government being insufficient for Swedish citizens to allow a system wherein cash payments are prohibited. War and civil commotion may be unlikely in Sweden but they want a legal framework for forcing the acceptance of cash despite an overwhelming preference for electronic processing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/being-cash-free-puts-us-at-risk-of-attack-swedes-turn-against-cashlessness
April 4th, 2018 at 11:53:04 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Fleastiff
Slashdot reports major article in the guardian on Sweden's ...


Unfortunately that article confuses two issues. (1) All money is electronic and controlled by commercial banks. (2) The danger of having all electronic money, even if there is a digital currency controlled by the central bank.

1 EUR as of 04/04/2018= 10.2864 SEK.

The lack of physical cash for a backup could be quite easily fixed by fixing 10 SEK to 1 Euro. Although this move would take much of the rights of the Riksbank to make policy, the reality is the Swedish economy is highly dependent on the economy of the European Monetary Union.

The Swedish central bank contains this notification for the last several months.

The Riksbank is responsible for providing Sweden with banknotes and coins. Our tasks include issuing banknotes and coins, destroying worn-out banknotes and coins and redeeming invalid banknotes. The Riksbank does not govern how much cash is in circulation in society; this is instead determined by demand from the general public. The Euro banknotes could circulate as a backup to electronic money.

In any case for a population of 10 million, Sweden is circulating 64 million banknotes of denomination 500kr which is roughly a 50 Euro banknote. In addition they are circulating four denominations of coins, and other banknotes in smaller quantities. Although this is a very small amount of cash compared to the rest of the world, they don't seem in a hurry to eliminate it completely.
May 11th, 2018 at 3:13:49 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Australia to ban cash transactions above ten thousand dollars.
May 11th, 2018 at 4:38:40 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
There is a little known crypto currency called "tether" with a market cap of a mere $2 billion. That seems like very little compared to the market cap of the larger crypto coins.

Bitcoin $149 billion
Ethereum $69 billion
Ripple $27 billion
Bitcoin Cash $24 billion
EOS $13 billion

But "tether" is an unusual crypto coin in that one crypto coin is set to one US dollar. Also the coins are backed by an investment fund in dollars.

The "tether" crypto currency bears some resemblance to the Central Bank of the Bahamas. The Bahamas issues $275.3 million in currency, where one Bahamian dollar is equal to one USD, and is backed by conservative US investments (like treasury bonds) worth the same amount. You could say that Bahamian dollars are "tethered" or "pegged" to the USD.



Of course, a tether crypto coin is not interested in secure paper banknotes like Bahamian dollars, but in electronic transactions. In some ways it is a private investment that is beating the digital currency being discussed by the central banks.

Quote: Fleastiff
Australia to ban cash transactions above ten thousand dollars.

One of the consequences of such a ban might be the elimination of the Australian $100. If there are no legal cash transactions above $10,000 then what does it matter if you need 100 or 200 banknotes.

There may be some interest in a crypto currency tethered to the Australian dollar. Even if individual cash transactions are limited to $10,000 it might be easier to coordinate them if they are all electronic. You could pay me $10,000 plus pay my wife $10,000 plus pay my two children $10,000 and do it all over again in 24 hours or whatever the period is that the law requires before it is a new transaction.

Although you could do the same thing with a bank transaction, it is all traceable. The advantage of a crypto transfer is that it has the convenience of a bank electronic transfer, but the privacy of physical cash.