The gap between the printing cost of banknotes and their face value is called seigniorage.
Agents grumble that they bear the cost of getting banknotes to remote areas but take only a share of the (insufficient) fee, which is often paid late.
Weaver had been collecting banknotes, but when the price for a single bill hit $300, he bailed out and started collecting checks, which cost no more than a few bucks.
The weakness of the Swiss franc at the foreign exchange market and the associated loss of monetary metal and increasing costs of banknote issue led to a decline of the banknote share to 19% in 1906.
The common arguments against packing more fivers into cash machines included the greater cost to companies that sorted and supplied banknotes.
"Banknotes and coins have no intrinsic value (a penny costs more to produce than it's worth in copper) and yet are accepted the world over.
Mr Mills added: "The development of our iSIS project has enabled us to develop a new generation of low cost, high security, plated coin with multiple levels of banknote-strength security built in".
On her return, carrying a stash of demerara sugar in her suitcase ("It costs six times more in Ukraine"), Galina paid the hotel bill with a brick of banknotes that Sergei had given her.
Banknotes pay zero interest.
