Shrapnel

Ok I have been busy counting out the small change ready to go to the bank. It is known as shrapnel, as it is the small coins that arrive back in your pocket after the big coins have been spent (exploded).

Now in the UK we have penny coins such as 1, 2 and 5. All of these are now pretty useless, they don't buy many things any more, they just weigh your pockets down.

If I were in charge I would probably get rid of 1p and 2p coins, after all there are billions of them just like mine sitting around in money boxes.

The other troublesome denomination is the humble fiver, have you noticed recently that more shops apologise for not having any fiver's in change and give you lots of coins or that the fiver's you do get are past their sell by date.

The reason is not that there is a national shortage, the Bank of England has millions just waiting to be issued, but that retailers and banks don't like the notes, they take up too much space. It may not be long until we see a £5 coin come into general circulation.

Of course even better would be to get rid of cash altogether but that seems just as far off as it has even been. Despite trials with mobile phones, charge up cards, chip and pin cards etc nothing quite seems to be able to replace cash in its entirety.

The other disadvantage to all this shrapnel is that it wears out the pockets on my trousers and even with the iron-on mending patch they are never quite the same.

From Banking to trouser pockets, it is a funny old world.