The New York Times today reports: Quotes: "Electronic purses" may mean the end of cash. Banks, credit card companies and even some governments are racing to introduce electronic purses, wallet-size cards embedded with microchips that store sums of money for people to use instead of cash for everything from buying fast food to paying highway tolls. * * * Long-range planners in the banking industry see the weaning of small businesses and consumers from cash as the last step to closing many expensive branches and conducting virtually all business by telephone, through cash machines and perhaps home computers. * * * "As more and more people do business on the Internet, we have to look for how you pay for things," said Catherine Allen, a vice president in Citibank's technology office and the head of the Smart Card Forum, an industry group. "The smart card allows me to identify myself securely." * * * But Mondex [Britain's system] has still another wrinkle: privacy. Unlike most other electronic purse systems, Mondex, like cash, is anonymous. The banks that issue Mondex cards will not be able to keep track of who gets the payments. Indeed, it is the only system in which two card holders can transfer money to each other. "If you want to have a product that replaces cash, you have to do everything that cash does, only better," Mondex's senior executive, Michael Keegan said. "You can give money to your brother who gives it to the chap that sells newspapers, who gives it to charity, who puts it in the bank, which has no idea where it's been. That's what money is." End quotes. The article describes smart card systems in the US and other countries. Describes how customers "recharge" the card by home phone or other means. Email copies wanted? It's about a half-page in size. John