I recently read an article about the scarcity of coins in circulation. Apparently during the pandemic people are not shopping as much with cash. In recent years my payment process for shopping has been almost strictly credit cards. It has been at least 10 or months since I have used cash. I carry no coins and when I have no alternative but to use cash, the coins I get in change go directly to my wife. She stills like to operate in the cash world.
Along with the aversion to cash I am on a kick to avoid writing checks! I love the process of setting up monthly bills for either credit cards or electronic bank transfers. I can't remember the last time I ordered new checks. The check providing company thinks I have fallen off the earth,
Are the changes progress? I certainly think so. During my first international travel in the 70's the standard payment process revolved around travelers' checks. At the airport of the country of arrival one would go to a currency conversion kiosk and convert an appropriate amount of US Dollars to the local currency. Before the European Union and the advent of the Euro that meant each country had their own currency. Speaking of coins, I still have some Spanish, German, Dutch and Belgium coins of minor value. What a blessing it was for later travel to simply pay with credit cards.
Often geezers are heard to complain how things were great in the good old days. I am not one of them. I am delighted to have lived long enough to see progress on so many fronts. And speaking of progress on many fronts I am reminded how many splendid improvements have been made in ski clothing and ski gear. I am happy to see T-bars go obsolete. Maybe in the shopping society the best thing could be for cash to become obsolete.
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