'It's one of those vast social upheavals that everyone understands but that hardly anyone notices, because it seems too ordinary: the long-predicted "cashless society" has quietly arrived, or nearly so; currency, coins and checks are receding as ways of doing everyday business; we've become Plastic Nation. In the tangled history of American money--from tobacco receipts to gold and silver coins to paper money and checks--this is a seismic shift. Time to pay attention.'
