Even countries that are often held up as the leaders of a cashless crusade, such as Sweden and Denmark, aren’t really getting rid of notes and coins. In June of this year, there was a round of headlines declaring that Denmark would rid itself of cash by 2016. “Burn your bills: Denmark wants to go cashless by 2016,” the headlines read. Not even close, Rene Thomsen, manager at the Danish Bankers Association told me. “I think, there’s been some misunderstanding on what the Danish proposal really is,” he said. In Denmark, he explained, there is currently a rule that all shops must accept cash. This new proposal would let some shops get around that rule. That’s all.

“It’s difficult to say, but I would be very surprised if we didn’t have cash in 10 to 15 years,” he says. “It’s hard to imagine that within 10 to 15 years that it’s not possible to go into a bank and say ‘I would like $1,000 and I want it in cash.’”

Irrational urge



Perhaps cash’s sticking power has something to do with our strange relationship with notes and coins. As with most of our decisions and preferences, our affinity for cash isn’t entirely rational. People value cash differently than they value electronic money, even though the two have the exact same value. Psychologist Eric Uhlmann, from the Paris School of Management, has done a handful of studies that picked apart how differently people feel about different kinds of money. “I’m interested in human intuition and economic irrationalities,” he says. “There’s this sort of irrational feeling that if money is physical, it’s more yours, and you feel like you own it more. If you touch a dollar more, then that particular dollar becomes yours.”