13 May 2010 (Thursday) - Loadasmoney

Did you know that there is such a thing as a 500 Euro note? I didn’t. Apparently there is, but you can’t get them in the UK. We’ve made a decision not to allow the things. On hearing this, my immediate reaction was one of wonder – why on Earth not? And then I learned something.

There was a chap on the radio explaining the matter. He described the gangster films in which people carry round attaché cases containing a million quid. I’ve always accepted this whenever I’ve seen James Bond and the like, and not batted an eyelid. But when you work it out, it turns out that it’s not physically possible to get a million quid into a briefcase. Using the largest denomination note (£50), you would need four attaché cases to fit it all in.

This bloke went on to say that the reason that we don’t have anything more valuable than a fifty quid note (and the comparable $100 note in the US) is to thwart the very gangsters we see idolised on the telly.

The higher the denomination note available, the easier it is to surreptitiously shift large amounts of cash. On the link I gave above there was a case of organised crime trying to launder 300,000 Euros. I say “case” – in actual fact the cash was in a cornflakes box. A similar value of pounds sterling would need a large suitcase.

As well as pounds sterling and dollars taking up (about) ten times the volume of a comparable amount of Euros, he also gave another reason why gangsters like Euros. Having got a huge value of cash into a very small volume, there are then sixteen different countries into which that cash can be laundered. One lives and learns.

It all makes my dodgy coppers (that I mentioned yesterday) seem very small change.

There’s been a new addition to my ever-growing world of friends. Molly’s not a well dog – she’s diabetic which has left her blind. And she has Cushing’s disease. But she has found some wonderful people who will look after her. And if any other wonderful people would like to give a quid or two to help cover the not insignificant cost of her medications, please click here.