towards the end of the coins and notes?

At the entrance to Famars, among the red brick houses typical of the North, the white facade of the bakery stands out. It borders the main street of the village of 2,500 inhabitants. The passer-by who goes up it then finds the pharmacy, then the hairdresser, the florist, the chip shop and the café. So many counters on which coins jingle and trip, and notes crumple.

Bruno Zago, the baker, knows the habits of his customers. There is this grandmother who arrives with her twenty euro note and asks for four fiver notes to share between her grandchildren; this woman with a modest income, who, when paying, takes an envelope from her handbag – she keeps her food budget there for the month.

The craftsman knows that many of them were put in difficulty by the closure, last June, of the ATM in the neighboring town. In his shop, he relays a petition from the town hall to the banks to request the reopening of an ATM within the village.

This story is banal. By 2024, more than 1,500 “zippers” will have closed. Nearly one in five has disappeared since 2018 (1). Because the banks no longer see their use. Last year, 43% of point-of-sale payments were made in cash, compared to 70% in 2016 (2). Meanwhile, in Brussels, the European Commission is preparing the arrival of its digital currency.

The two years of technical study ends in October 2025. “We are working on the name, the colors,” confirmed Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), on October 6, 2025. In 2030, in addition to coins and notes, we should all be owners of a digital wallet filled with virtual euros. An upheaval.

Imagine Sophie, 45, who buys her bread in Bruno Zago’s bakery. Today, she pays in cash or chooses to take out her card. In the second case, his payment goes through his bank, which transfers it to that of the baker. An operation which involves four parties: the buyer, the merchant, and their respective banks.

Tomorrow, with the digital euro, for these small payments, banks will come out of the equation. A citizen will be able to transfer part of their money to a digital wallet (via an application) guaranteed by the ECB. When Sophie goes to Bruno’s house, she can pay him directly with this money, just as she would hand him a note. Bruno will cash it into his account reserved for digital euros, which will save him from paying bank fees.

Interest in Sophie? This fallback account will be useful for making daily payments, in all circumstances, including in the event of a banking crisis or breakdown, or even a cyberattack, paralyzing banking systems. Like liquid.

The typical consumer of this very near future is Jean. This 28-year-old from Lille never has cash on him. When he goes to the shops in the capital of Flanders, he takes a small, barely filled card holder from his pocket, places it on the automatic payment terminal, “beeps” and leaves.

He often “does a Lydia”: thanks to this application, all he needs is a phone number to reimburse his friends at the end of an evening. This young engineer has a dream: to create other digital payment tools for an even more simplified daily life.

Gone are the days when everyone had coins and notes in their pocket. And with it, anonymity. Digital involves the collection of data (identity, banking information, purchase details). In 2024, for the first time in France, the bank card was the most used means of payment in local businesses.

In stores, checkout via a mobile phone application has doubled in two years (2). The invisibility of payment accompanies the dematerialization of the store: a quarter of purchases are now made online.

The most precarious under threat

Driven by contactless and distance learning, the act of purchasing becomes a reflex, rather than a reflection. And everyone wants their share of this juicy market. Amazon, Apple, Google, and even the fast food chain Starbucks offer payment services.

Of course, nothing is free, because immediacy and ease have to be paid for. Commissions charged for each card transaction cost merchants thousands of euros per year, passed on to the consumer.

By losing its materiality, money also loses part of its symbolic value. In the past, paying required a gesture, a decision. Today, spending is nothing more than a finger touching a screen. However, “many people have trouble counting their money, getting organized, being aware of their purchases if they don’t have cash,” observes Marie-Gabrielle, a social worker. When you pay with cash, you actually see that it disappears.”

The gesture is also moral: it gives the measure of what we have and what we give. Dematerialization therefore concretely changes uses. In just a few clicks, a myriad of expenses becomes possible. Such as the subscription to online microcredits, which is exploding, trapping low-income households. Digital can give an impression of omnipotence, swept away by reality.

Sovereignty issue

Paradoxically, the freedom allowed by dematerialization implies greater dependence on hardware. Indeed, the system is based on invisible machinery: data centers, submarine cables, mobile networks, servers of foreign multinationals. However, in a world where geopolitical and economic crises combine, this dependence is risky.

Last year, Sweden, where cash had almost disappeared, was deprived of all its digital payment methods due to a cyberattack blamed on Russia, putting the economy in great difficulty (read box below). An essential sovereignty issue for the European continent: in 2024, 66% of card payments in the euro zone were made via foreign companies outside the zone (2).

Worse, fifteen of the twenty countries in the region depend entirely on them. In the 2000s, American intelligence services collected personal data via the American branch of a bank-to-bank payments company, Swift.

The European Union has encouraged the development of these tools. In 2015, it forced banks to grant access to their customers’ accounts to payment companies (3), giving a boost to their growth. Because digital technology saves time, facilitates exchanges, and stimulates economic growth.

But by making the economy more fluid, it also shifts power. Public and free currency – our coins and notes – is gradually being replaced by private and paid means of payment. Some platforms, like PayPal or Amazon, keep the money on their applications, or even offer loans to merchants. In other words, they are starting to play the role of banks.

Decline of the informal economy

Institutional control nevertheless remains a guarantee of stability. Unlike private companies, which seek their own interests, the ECB targets the public interest. “The platforms are not supervised,” recalls Michel Ruimy, economist. Banks obey strict rules to avoid crises and transmit monetary policy.

The challenge is to find the balance between freedom, which stimulates innovation, and control, which protects the common good. The value of money is primarily due to trust. A note reassures: it is a direct promise from the Central Bank, valid everywhere and definitive, once exchanged. In the digital world, where we go through banks or platforms, this evidence becomes blurred. Hence the digital euro, which aims to reintroduce this public confidence in dematerialized payment.

“We want to regain sovereignty and resilience,” explains Bruno Monteil, economist at the Banque de France. “Central banks seek, to a certain extent, to maintain control by recovering private initiative,” continues Michel Ruimy.

Public authorities also benefit from the new powers offered by dematerialization. Digital currency is traceable: you can know where and how it was spent, making the fight against fraud, money laundering and illegal activities simpler.

But illegality does not only concern serious criminals. It’s the whole “gray” or informal economy: the construction worker paid under the table to repair the roof, or the babysitter who comes to look after the children for a ticket.

In May 2025, the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, raised the idea of ​​eliminating cash to fight drug trafficking. A legally inapplicable idea. Especially since cash payments are already limited to 1,000 euros in France. But the measure is small. From 2027, cash transactions above 10,000 euros will be impossible in European Union countries.

Fear of an authoritarian drift

Entrusting these powers to States may raise legitimate concerns. Imagine a government that would limit the use of the virtual euro to certain products to guide consumption. Imagine the possibility for an authoritarian power to target or financially sanction individuals based on their opinions detected through their transactions. The ECB considers these scenarios excessive, but they call for precise safeguards.

The Chinese example illustrates the possible drift: with cash disappearing, those in power know where and how everyone spends. In 2023, the digital yuan was mobilized to restrict the transactions of certain opponents. In the European case, “confidentiality will remain guaranteed, particularly for small everyday payments,” reassures Bruno Monteil.

The shift into a new, faster, more fluid and intangible world is accelerating. It risks leaving behind those who do not adapt: ​​people living on donations (read box below), those who do not have an internet connection, a smartphone or computer skills, or who use cash to manage a tight budget. Coins and notes remain the only universal, tangible means of payment available in the event of a crisis.

The majority of the population is attached to it. The acceleration of technological progress raises concerns, but the ECB and the Banque de France assure us: cash will not disappear completely. It will remain the vestige of a slower, less efficient, but perhaps more humane world. The one where money still retained the weight of the gesture and the warmth of an outstretched hand at the baker’s.

1. National Committee for Means of Payment.
2. Banque de France Bulletin, January 2025.
3. Second European directive on payment services.