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Happy Birthday Cash Machine

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27 June 2017

By Alex Khalil

I never thought I’d say that. Ever.

Yes, either the bane or best friend of us Brits turned 50 years old today. 50 long years of drawing what little we have out of machines, or looking at our bank balance and wincing after a night out, or having one pizza too many. That one was personal.

The Bank of England’s chief cashier, Victoria Cleland, said that we will still be using cash for the next 50 years also, even though the use of notes and coins used in transactions is falling. She pointed out that 94% of adults use cash machines regularly. Cash is still an integral part of our everyday life, for things like busses, the Metro, corner shop purchases and takeaways. You know, the one that you’re ashamed of because it’s not on Just Eat.

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Anyway, the first ever cash machine was opened at a Barclays branch in Enfield, London, in 1967. As a tribute to its golden anniversary, the original machine has been turned to gold. There are currently about 70,000 cash machines in the UK, with 176 million cards to use the machines with. Cards like these were used to withdraw £180bn from UK machines in 2016.

So yeah, next time you go to take the last tenner out of your account, just remember, someone 50 years ago was doing the exact same thing. Except they probably used it to buy useful things.

Instead of pizza and games.

Like a certain someone.

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