In 1951, notorious bank robber Willie Sutton (may have) told a reporter that he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is.” Whether he said it or not (Sutton denied it), he had a point.
Those days if you wanted cash, legally or otherwise, you went into a bank. While they still have bundles of it locked away, today much of it is dispensed from machines instead of bank tellers. Many of those machines aren’t even at the bank itself, and hardly any of them will hand over money to a guy with a gun.
But carrying large amounts of cash is not without its downsides prompting most people to favor credit and debit cards and electronic transfers for larger transactions like paying bills or buying large-ticket items. So does that mean cash is on its way out? Not so far, at least.
Don’t Count Cash Out
According to a recent article on CNBC.com in August 2018, the use of cash by U.S. households is consistent across most income levels, around 25 percent, and is still growing. For the past two decades, cash in circulation has grown at over 5% and the number of banknotes in circulation doubled to 40 billion.
Cash is still the most frequent method of payment. Despite the growth of e-commerce, cash accounts for 31% percent of transactions, outpacing electronic payments, credit and debit cards and checks.
Keeping Cash Safe
Governments have long suffered from having their coins and bills counterfeited, but modern production techniques have resulted in extraordinary security features. Each year national banks have announced redesigns of their currency leading to innovations like security strips, holograms, and new substrates like polyester. And as older banknotes are removed from circulation, they present opportunities for collectors.
Collecting Discontinued Banknotes
Some banknotes like older Zimbabwean dollars and Vietnamese dong are virtually worthless as money, but the lure of having a few trillion in those currencies has caused them to be sought out by collectors both as novelties and as curiosities.
Other notes, US war dollars and gold certificates for instance, are rare historical documents that are worth far more than their face value, similar to rare coins and other collectibles.
The Great American Coin Company® offers a wide selection of US paper money and other world currencies to satisfy your collecting and gift-giving needs.
Our inventory is constantly changing, so be sure to visit our website often.
