Physical cash should still have an important — albeit diminished — role to play in the economy of the future. Ever since the pandemic began, the use of cash around the world has been heavily demonized for increasing the risk of Covid-19 infection, with the result that physical money, long cast by its detractors as unhygienic and dirty, has become even dirtier in many people’s minds. In the minds of some it is too dangerous to even touch, As the World Economic Forum said in June 2020, “the (overhyped) concern that cash could help spread the virus” gave contactless cards and wallets...