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Cash, the physical form of currency, has been around since the Lydians minted coins in the Iron Age, circa 610 BC.

From nursery rhymes (“Sing a song of sixpence!”) and the takings of lemonade stands, to piggybanks and the legendary Tooth Fairy, cash has been a part of childhood, a symbol of sustenance, wealth and independence. Remember when you first acquired a wallet and slipped some banknotes in? Or when you made your first solo purchase at the candy store?

Yet, those days may soon be just a faded memory, with coins and notes relegated to the folders of numismatists. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of cash has declined drastically, with ATM withdrawals falling by 60 per cent in Australia. With the ubiquitous smartphone and a mass move to credit/debit cards, we are heading towards a cashless economy. Even churches are providing electronic terminals for ad hoc donations.

Critical Mass

However, recently, there has been a revival of sorts. News.com.au ran this headline in June: “Aussies flock to ATMs, withdraw thousands in cash as part of campaign against card payments”, reporting: “The Cash is King Australia Facebook group promoted the unofficial Cash Out Day to their 27,000+ followers, calling on anti-card activists to withdraw from bank branches or machines.”

As News Weekly noted in its 13 December 2023 issue, cash remains a vital method of payment in this country, particularly when consumers are faced with technical difficulties like the Optus outage on 8 November 2023, the collapse of the entire e-banking system in Zimbabwe back in 2019, or the recent CrowdStrike calamity on 19 July that disrupted airlines, schools, hospitals and so on, due to a faulty update that affected eight million Microsoft Windows computers.

Fortune ran an alarming article in June: “Why going cashless has turned Sweden from one of the safest countries into a high-crime nation”. Cybercriminals filched 1.2 billion kronor ($A170 million) in 2023, double what they stole in 2021. Defrauding both individuals and the welfare system, these bad actors are also funding violent crime, with the Swedish gun-homicide rate tripling between 2012 and 2022.

Sweden moved to electronic payments after a wave of armed robberies in the 1990s, and the use of cash became associated with criminal activity. Riksbank governor Erik Thedéen told Bloomberg: “We have to be very clear that there are still honest people using cash.” Ironic, considering how much more the crooks are now profiting from digital payments.

Discrimination

American Paralympian Anthony Ferraro lamented on Facebook that cashless payments pose “huge accessibility issues” for the blind. He said: “I do not like having the cashier have to see all my info, and help me.”

In Australia, banknotes are produced with raised dots to assist the blind in identifying the correct ones for payment. In the move to a cashless society, are we creating an insurmountable hurdle for the visually impaired?

ABC News reported last August that the move away from cash disadvantages the elderly, and those in regional and remote areas who cannot access digital financial services easily. Nearly 20 per cent of people over 65 rely mainly on cash, and the Reserve Bank of Australia found that people from low-income households tend to use cash more often as well.

In fact, on 16 August, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock told Federal Parliament’s House Economics Committee that the RBA was committed to retaining cash.

“There is a minority, but a significant minority, of people who still rely heavily on cash and want to use cash,” she said. “The government is committed, and we are committed as well, to trying to maintain access to cash for people who want to use it.

“Cash is used as a store of wealth, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty, and can be a useful backup for electronic methods of payment.”

Victims of abuse also depend on cash, as they may be prevented by their abusers from accessing electronic financial services or cards.

Then there are the “unbanked”: those who are unable to set up a bank account as they are undocumented workers or newly arrived migrants without the necessary identification; and those with privacy and security concerns, unwilling to entrust their hard-earned money to fallible banks.

The ABC added:

“In emergency situations, like floods and bushfires, ‘cash is king’, says creative technologist Jessie Hughes.

“Electricity and telecommunications outages can take out digital networks and people’s access to funds with them. For instance, during the devastating Lismore floods in 2022, electronic payment systems crashed, leaving flood victims unable to pay for essential items like water, food and fuel.”

Hopefully, considering the pitfalls of a cashless society, businesses and consumers will retain the time-honoured use of cash – and avoid transaction fees into the bargain. Have you used cash at all in the past week? Perhaps it is time to renew your acquaintance with this useful, fungible artefact.

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Republished with thanks to News Weekly. Image courtesy of Adobe.