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Re:In praise of cash by delinka on Friday March 03, 2017 @06:23PM (#13787874)
But that still doesn't track with whom you spent that cash.
Re:In praise of cash by vkou on Friday March 03, 2017 @06:32PM (#13787929)
Unless your counterparty goes ahead and deposits it in their bank at the end of the day.

If five of the twenty bills you withdrew at 9 am were deposited by Seven-Eleven at 7 pm, I can guess that you went shopping at Seven-Eleven... And more likely then not, I'll be right.

A particular bill does not change hands very frequently between ending up at a bank. If anything, a bill that you withdrew not ending up back in circulation is suspicious.

Re:In praise of cash by Animats on Saturday March 04, 2017 @01:57PM (#13792297)
A particular bill does not change hands very frequently between ending up at a bank.

Right. At one time the US Fed estimated that the average number of transactions for cash outside a bank was two. That's an old number, measured years ago to plan bill replacement. (One of the Federal Reserve's functions is paper bill replacement. Banks pull worn bills and send them to the Fed, which tallies them, shreds them, and replaces them with new bills from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Dollar bills last about 18-22 months.)