Three Bitcoins In A Fountain

The end of cash does not mean the end of charity.

Dateline: Woking, 6th December 2024.

Well, we’ve all stopped at a fountain, a lakeside or a bridge over a river and thrown a coin in to make a wish. I’ve done it more than once (and Woking are still not in the Premier League). The physicality, throwing things and watching splashes, was part of the fun. You can’t throw a contactless card int into a wising well, of course, but that does not mean that we need to keeps notes and coins in circulation.

Personally I never give to charities in the street anyway as my charity donations are set up as direct debits from my bank account, but I certainly have paid progressive buskers on the London subway and elsewhere with a cheery tap on a contactless terminal. Digital money mavens like me still celebrate tradition and support charities. So what will we do about those places where cash is apparently irreplaceable?

Cash Is Taking A Bath

There is a real issue here. Take a look at the plight of the Roman Baths in Bath in England. They have reportedly lost more than £90,000 in donations since telling visitors not to throw coins into the 2,000-year-old cold plunge pool (which visitors used to treat like a wishing well) and to donate through contactless payments instead. I can understand why. Tossing a coin into a pool is a physical act, shared with onlookers. It is undoubtedly more satisfying than a tap-and-pay beep. There are places like this where physical cash still has a role. Not in shops, where contactless cards and mobile wallets works fine, but in places like wishing wells, buskers' hats and charity collection boxes.

with kind permission of Helen Holmes (CC-BY-ND 4.0)

So how can we protect charity donations and the like when cash is replaced by cards and phones? With coins in particular becoming a relic of the past, it is essential for digital money technocrats (eg, me) to explore these questions and come up with some positive answers as our world becomes increasingly cashless.

Going Post-Functional

Let us be clear: I think that rump cash should be actively managed out of existence, but I exclude various categories of post-functional cash from this definition. Post-functional cash is cash that is used as something other than a means of exchange, such as the banknotes pinned to a bride’s dress in some countries. This is I how see those coins going into the wishing well.

I think that I can be imaginative in finding ways for post-functional cash and cashlessness to co-exist. For example, when I read that story about the Roman baths I did wonder why the curators did not utilise the best of both worlds: A contactless vending machine to disgorge replica Roman coins to provide the necessary physical objects for visitors to flip into the water. Beep and plink. Perfect.

(I think you should be able to choose a specific emperor too if you want to, such as Diocletian if adjacent to an El Salvadorean river.)

Actually, something along these lines has already been tried. In Rome itself, as it happens, where a machine popped up at the Trevi Fountain earlier this year and sparked a backlash for ruining the beauty of the iconic tourist attraction. Those who have visited the stunning fountain in the heart of Italy's capital will have no doubt tossed in a coin (as I did), a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. But who wants a machine that throws the coins in on your behalf! How dull. In fact, as one observer noted, "It takes away all meaning, all charm from the act of throwing coins into the fountain.” and I could not agree more. But, again, why not dispense replica coins relevant to the location and allow people throw them in themselves?

Heaven’s Gateway

It is pointless to bemoan the lack of coins in peoples’ pockets. Not only do people leave the house without cash these days, a great many of them leave the house without wallets. This of course sets a number of challenges to charities relying on cash donations as they encounter reduced spontaneous giving because physical cash, spur-of-the-moment donations, dropping coins into a donation box, decline.

It is not all bad news. Handling cash requires secure storage and transportation, which digital donations mitigate. There are other advantages too: digital donations are simple to track and audit, leading to better financial oversight and setting up recurring contributions is easier in the digital realm.

We can do better though. Part of planning for a less-cash future is not just replacing cash in every nook and cranny of the economy but putting forward digital alternatives that actually deliver more value to the operators of the donation boxes, collection tins and the wishing wells as well as the fun people, like me, who want to support them. With good planning, this is straightforward. Look at what has been going on in the Church of England, which has completed a three-year project to roll out contactless giving devices to more than two thousand churches, devices that have already raised almost £4 million in donations. The project was funded with £1.25 million investment from the Church Commissioners to provide free or subsidised devices. Even churches without an internet connection are participating, as some of the devices can store donations offline and be uploaded to the internet later.

At this time of year, when households across Britain will give around £2.8 billion in total to charities, according to an estimate from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), it worth remembering that the end of cash does not mean the end of charity.