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| Security may well be enhanced by plastic banknotes. But my soul won't | Security may well be enhanced by plastic banknotes. But my soul won't |
| (5 days later) | |
| There are certainly more important things going on. But the anxious – and that's most of us, now, isn't it? – can find themselves tripped up by the unlikeliest details. They stop, forget about the other horrors the world happens to be serving up that week, and home in. It's a coping mechanism. | There are certainly more important things going on. But the anxious – and that's most of us, now, isn't it? – can find themselves tripped up by the unlikeliest details. They stop, forget about the other horrors the world happens to be serving up that week, and home in. It's a coping mechanism. |
| The debate over whether banknotes should be made out of paper or plastic is undeniably trivial. From the point of view of ideas, that is: it may or may not be a useful change, but it's not like the question of Just War. And yet the news that the Bank of England will proceed with plastic notes "unless there's a big public outcry" lit blue touchpaper in a corner of my mind. "I'll give them an outcry!" I thought, feeling my blood stir in a way it hadn't for all sorts of other momentous events that I'm not going to embarrass myself by listing. | The debate over whether banknotes should be made out of paper or plastic is undeniably trivial. From the point of view of ideas, that is: it may or may not be a useful change, but it's not like the question of Just War. And yet the news that the Bank of England will proceed with plastic notes "unless there's a big public outcry" lit blue touchpaper in a corner of my mind. "I'll give them an outcry!" I thought, feeling my blood stir in a way it hadn't for all sorts of other momentous events that I'm not going to embarrass myself by listing. |
| "Don't take any more paper away!" was the cry rising inside me. Everywhere you look, things made from it are going the way of the dodo. It is my generation's misfortune to have been brought up to hold objects made of paper in deep reverence, only to see society discard them, one by one. Letters were nice to receive, but a chore to write. I am sad that I will one day witness the end of newsprint, but have become resigned to the fact. I am angrier that bookshops and libraries are now menaced by the sterile, characterless e-reader. At banknotes, I snap. | "Don't take any more paper away!" was the cry rising inside me. Everywhere you look, things made from it are going the way of the dodo. It is my generation's misfortune to have been brought up to hold objects made of paper in deep reverence, only to see society discard them, one by one. Letters were nice to receive, but a chore to write. I am sad that I will one day witness the end of newsprint, but have become resigned to the fact. I am angrier that bookshops and libraries are now menaced by the sterile, characterless e-reader. At banknotes, I snap. |
| I am not a patriotic man. But I always felt that British money was a cut above the rest. Each note is like a little illuminated manuscript in your wallet. A silvery thread snakes through paper made from white cotton. It is crisp but a little waxy, the letters so thickly inked your can almost read them with your fingertips. Wild patterns dance, perspective shifts, all to fool the forger. The ghostly watermark preserves a tradition dating back to medieval Italy. | I am not a patriotic man. But I always felt that British money was a cut above the rest. Each note is like a little illuminated manuscript in your wallet. A silvery thread snakes through paper made from white cotton. It is crisp but a little waxy, the letters so thickly inked your can almost read them with your fingertips. Wild patterns dance, perspective shifts, all to fool the forger. The ghostly watermark preserves a tradition dating back to medieval Italy. |
| The alternative? Resistant to dirt and moisture ("wipe clean", in fact). Harder to fake. Smaller, apparently. On the £10 note, the empty oval between the Queen's head and the orange diamond stamped "ER" will be a "plastic window", offering enhanced security. Security may be enhanced. But the soul will not. Not that I have often turned to banknotes for inspiration. But with this further encroachment of banality, of "wipe clean", into our lives, I feel an outcry might well be justified. | The alternative? Resistant to dirt and moisture ("wipe clean", in fact). Harder to fake. Smaller, apparently. On the £10 note, the empty oval between the Queen's head and the orange diamond stamped "ER" will be a "plastic window", offering enhanced security. Security may be enhanced. But the soul will not. Not that I have often turned to banknotes for inspiration. But with this further encroachment of banality, of "wipe clean", into our lives, I feel an outcry might well be justified. |
| All of this is totally irrational, of course. Paper money's days have been numbered since we all started using the other kind of plastic to pay for things. The environmental case is there, according to the experts. The practical case is there. Just ask Chris Salmon, the chief cashier of our proud nation (who may or may not sit in front of a giant till). He believes there is a "clear case for migrating our banknotes from the current paper onto polymer". I believe his decision may mean there is now a clear case for migrating, full stop. Except that euro notes are crimes against design, in the US everything is the same boring shade of green and Australia and Canada are out, because they already use the dreaded material. | All of this is totally irrational, of course. Paper money's days have been numbered since we all started using the other kind of plastic to pay for things. The environmental case is there, according to the experts. The practical case is there. Just ask Chris Salmon, the chief cashier of our proud nation (who may or may not sit in front of a giant till). He believes there is a "clear case for migrating our banknotes from the current paper onto polymer". I believe his decision may mean there is now a clear case for migrating, full stop. Except that euro notes are crimes against design, in the US everything is the same boring shade of green and Australia and Canada are out, because they already use the dreaded material. |
| I'm sure this feeling will pass. It's not really about banknotes anyway. It may not even be about paper. No one thinks Luddites are cool. But as the pace of change approaches warp speed, it would be nice if one or two things stayed the same, at least for a while. If not newspapers, books, or bits of paper satisfyingly stuffed into your pocket before being half-ruined by the washing machine, then what? | I'm sure this feeling will pass. It's not really about banknotes anyway. It may not even be about paper. No one thinks Luddites are cool. But as the pace of change approaches warp speed, it would be nice if one or two things stayed the same, at least for a while. If not newspapers, books, or bits of paper satisfyingly stuffed into your pocket before being half-ruined by the washing machine, then what? |
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