Cash is king, but not for long. contactless cards and mobile phones are the future shape of money.

Lesley Meall.

Predicting the future is a dangerous business, and anybody who tries it is more likely to get it wrong than to get it right; but there are times when you just have to take a risk, and put your money where your mouth is. So here goes nothing: the eventual demise of cold, hard, cash is an absolute certainty. In the same way as the dull thuds of clay tokens and tally sticks were slowly but surely replaced by clinking metal and rustling paper, these are slowly but surely being replaced by something a lot more 21st century: electronic money (see box 1).