Cashless Sweden And Coin Collecting

It was my understanding that the negative interest rates associated with the "deposit rate" in Sweden only applies to cash.

In Sweden Banknotes and coin held by banks is dropping 3.5x times faster than Banknotes and coin in circulation outside banks

At any rate here are the metrics in local currency for different currencies (sweden, USD, GBP, Euro, Switzerland, Japan).I also indicated SEK and JPY in USD.

Banknotes and coin held by banks (per capita)
year	Sweden	USA	UK	Euro	CHF	JPY
2011	850 kr	$232	£90	167 €	966	67,089
2012	780 kr	$252	£86	182 €	960	63,997
2013	348 kr	$257	£72	181 €	972	74,617
2014	370 kr	$279	£106	187 €	1019	75,332
2015	195 kr	$263	£80	185 €	962	75,183

Banknotes & coin held by banks in Sweden and Japan using then year x-rates (per capita)
year	Sweden 	~JPY
2011	$123	$866
2012	$120	$743
2013	$54	$711
2014	$48	$630
2015	$23	$624

So while Sweden never held much cash in banks relative to other countries, since the government imposed negative interest rates, the cash held by banks has dropped precipitously.

If I am not being clear, the general economic rule is that zero or negative interest rates usually mean people head to cash instead of banks. Sweden is bucking the trend partly by allowing the banks to avoid cash (outside of their ATMs) so that they have limited ability to get large denominations or large amounts of cash.

It's partly changes that are this abrupt to go from $120 to $54 in one year for banknotes & coin held by banks in Sweden that makes me loathe to call this change consumer demand driven. Personal habits change relatively slowly. But the bank is highly motivated to stop dealing in cash because of negative interest rates. I feel like there is a demand element since people get used to apps like SWISH, but I believe a lot of the change is coming from the government down down to the people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conta...#Floor_Limit

I suppose there are two different things. One is a "floor limit" which is the amount below which you don't have to sign or enter a PIN. In the USA that varies from retailer to retailer but places like home depot will typically permit up to $50. On the other hand "Home Depot" is not typically a place where someone will take a stolen credit card.

The second thing is the "contactless payments" which makes some people nervous. They turn off the function on their card. People are afraid of RFID chips.

Banks stopped carrying cash in Sweden for a variety of reasons. The one that is usually promoted is that it cuts down on bank robberies and makes it safer for bank employees.

But cash is inherently expensive to handle. You need people to count and recount, you have to lock up cash drawers, and petty thievery is always an issue. It's basically time consuming task with no real opportunities to add fees. The negative interest rates simply make cash even more expensive to handle.

I understand that Denmark is discussing doing away with cash machines in some retailers. I don't know if Sweden is also talking about doing the same thing. In the USA the problem of locking up a bar at 1AM and taking a pile of cash to the ATM for deposit is very risky.

Some high end retailers and occasional restaurants refuse to accept cash in the USA. Most apartment rental companies refuse to accept cash. A lot of gas stations will only accept up to $20 banknotes, and they are deposited into a safe onsite which the employee cannot get into. They display a large sign to that effect to discourage armed robbery.

Now it has been 33 months since the new 50kr, and 100kr banknotes were issued, and the cash supply of valid banknotes is actually slightly higher than it was 33 months ago.

While not a significant change, it does show that the march to cashlessness may not necessarily be pre-ordained. Society may simply want a minimum amount of cash.

Personally, I don't think the e-krona is going to kill cash. It will just be another type of electronic money. Please state otherwise if you disagree.

53.939 SEK billion Sept 2016 valid banknotes only
53.967 SEK billion June 2019 valid banknotes only

I was on a Caribbean island that was hit by a hurricane and lost all power for weeks. The island naturally switched to a cash or theft economy, but of course many of us couldn't get cash from the ATMs. We had to depend on the cash we were carrying to eat.

If the same thing were to happen in Sweden, it seems like many people don't have any cash on their person at all.

It looks like Swedes don't think about natural disasters much as they don't really have earthquakes or hurricanes.
Julorkanen 1902 was a strong European windstorm which struck Denmark and Sweden on 25 December 1902. Circa 50 fishermen were killed, while very few people on land were killed.

Generator sales are up, up, up.