Why don't organizations that store and transport bank notes have a machine that reads all the serial numbers, then the Bank of England could just cancel all those that get stolen ?. These numbers would be announced and everyone warned not to take them as payment as no bank will ever credit them to an account. Better still,we need to move to a cashless economy now, to stop all these robberies. Hartly.
What a brilliant idea. I'll just check every note I receive against the list I will always carry of the million plus stolen numbers.
In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes
How would you, as a private individual, be able to check every note against a huge list of numbers?
People woldnt be able to do it and Gresham's law would prevail, i.e. bad money drives out good. Result? The currency would collapse.
Wholeheartedly agree.
Credit/debit card fraud runs in excess of 1m per day, so the 'cashless' equivalent of this robbery unceasingly occurs every few weeks.
Perhaps in time each note will have an RFID tag - then the Government will know where all the money is. Cashing up could be easy and with an RFID tag reader on your mobile, linked in real time to the Bank of England you can check a note is genuine (or at least not reported stolen).
Just a thought - OK it needs work. I'll just wait for someone to tell me this has been done already.
The ECB were planning to do this a while back, I'm not sure if it ever came to fruition.
If I were sending very large amounts of cash in large parcels I would hide a tracker in the centre of the assignment then completely recoverable so long as the theives don't start counting their loot!!
The receiver would be told in advance to return the tracker for re-use.
Simple?
We were heading that way, and then some bright spark introduced Chip & Pin. I now use so much more cash than I used to, and I don't suppose I'm the only one.
Adam
Pickpockets could become a lot more selective ... just picking people who show up as having a lot of notes in their wallet.
BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.