Take Care of the Pence

Extract

It’s an unusual experience for a community to awake one morning to find the only tangible medium of exchange is the cash in the pockets of its citizens, especially when the citizens had no warning that it would be a good idea to have enough cash in their pockets to provide for the situation. That’s what happened in New York six months ago and that’s the state of affairs that obtained there, the financial centre of the world, according to some, for more than a week.

It’s a little difficult to convey the sensation derived from reading the announcement of a banking moratorium. Most people take their banks pretty much for granted. But imagine yourself of a morning entering your own dining room, ready to sit down to a nice hot breakfast. You open your morning paper. Large headlines inform you that, not only your own bank, but every bank in the country is closed for an indefinite period. Quickly you make a mental calculation of whatever small amount of money you have on your person. There’s that ten-bob note, and then there’s about three-and-six—no, that’s right, you spent ninepence on the way home—that’s two-and-ninepence in small change.