I rarely use cash to pay for anything now, I’ve had the same two fivers in my wallet – plus £3.50 in coin and some coins of 10p or less – for several years as I never go anywhere to spend it, even pubs accept card payments now although i rarely go in one. I do all my shopping online now and would have trouble remembering my PIN number if I needed to withdraw cash from an ATM.

When I was busking in Australia I could take what I earned to a bank and either pay into my account or exchange it for notes of the same value. You couldn’t do that now as nobody has coins to give to a busker and there are no bank branches to pay it in. Australia stopped using copper coins in the 90s, the total of a supermarket shop was rounded up to the nearest 5c. The increased use of card payments has made this policy redundant.

Before I emigrated I was working as a night porter in a hotel and living on my tips (board and lodging provided) while my wages were banked so I had some money to start my new life down-under. I don’t know how hospitality workers manage with tips now that bills are paid by card, I would rather tip someone in cash for good service than have it added to the bill as a “service charge”. I expect good service and shouldn’t be charged, a tip is a recognition of excellent service and should go to the person providing it, who is likely on minimum wage.

Cash has its drawbacks, some pensioners (perhaps younger than me) don’t feel comfortable with card payments but, with bank branches closing, they need a card to withdraw money from a cash machine.

I understand why the design of our currency changes from time to time, it’s to prevent forgery, but the need is reduced as the use of cash is reduced. People are more likely to be taken in by bitcoin than anything else. It just confuses people who trust the currency.

When the UK went decimal my mother, who wasn’t old then but would’ve been 100 if she’ld lived a couple of years longer, complained that the pound was worth less because there were only 10 pennies to the pound instead of 24. It hadn’t of course, the value of a penny had changed with the drop of the shilling from our unit of currency. A year later I emigrated to Australia and had to adapt to a different decimal currency

Aside: in colonial Australia many items were used as colonial, notably rum. The first generation of native born Australians (apart from the indigenous population) were known as currency lads and lasses to distinguish those who “who left their country for their country’s” from those emigrated voluntarily, they were sterling.