Dutch Central Bank advises people to keep a few days' cash in case banking systems fail

Storm Darragh brought payment system outages, perhaps in winter some backup cash would be a good idea.
 
I just can't believe that someone feels the need to keep €10k in cash, in the house....

What could you possibly need that amount of "emergency" cash for?

If you are a "Dooms Day Prep'r", then a combination of small pieces of ranked gold and precious gems, seems the better way to go, as currency will likely be worthless, in many Dooms Day scenarios.
 
Banking system collapses are usually sorted out in a couple of days, but the Regulator needs to compel all Banks to invest a minimum amount in maintaining and upgrading their tech. every year.

On a related note, I'm only after closing a recent news article about PTSB looking to cut staff numbers, including IT staff, which seems extremely odd, given they are hardly known for their robust and advanced technology.
 
Floor safe... Fire proof.
A place on Dame Street fits them. Bunch of 50 notes.
there is no such thing as a fire proof safe, there are fire resistant safes and depending on the standard, they can restrict damage for a lengthy period of time but eventually, the chances are that some damage will occur.

Secondly, no idea why you would need 10k in cash anyway. If civilisation does collapse in a heap then it will all be worthless and you are also in effect, paying for storing cash, since inflation erodes it's value
 
I like the phrase "cash has no memory"
While I'm not up to anything.. I always have about 10k at home.
Am I naive to think that serial numbers from notes are being recorded everytime cash passes through a bank? So you're at most two or three hops away from a systematic audit trail.
 
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Am I naive to think that serial numbers from notes aren't being recorded everytime cash passes through a bank? So you're at most two or three hops away from a systematic audit trail.
An audit trail of the history of a £5 note found on a victim in 1977 was a major plank of the operation to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, and it came remarkably close to apprehending Peter Sutcliffe. https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/21/netf...e-nearly-caught-peter-sutcliffe-out-13784583/
 
Am I naive to think that serial numbers from notes aren't being recorded everytime cash passes through a bank? So you're at most two or three hops away from a systematic audit trail.
In general, they don't record it, too many pieces of paper coming in from too many sources to make it effective. It might be different in the North where banks literally print their own cash and they would have some record of what they issued and destroyed.
 
A safe sunk into the concrete floor is as safe as it gets from fire, realistically you need it to be more waterproof than fire proof which it should also be. Fire rises in general and the floor is likely to be the least affected but unless you live in the sticks and the place is burnt to the ground before a fire engine gets there then water damage to the floor area is the most likely thing you have to protect against.

A family I know of living a long way from a fire station unfortunately had a fire and they had some cash stashed too but unfortunately in the attic! Long gone obviously before a fire engine turned up but had it been in a safe in the concrete floor it would have had some chance.
 
But tracking serial numbers from bills is trivial to automate. Machines already count and scan the bills as they're loaded into ATM trays, dispensed from ATMs, and scanned on deposit. So this idea that 'cash has no memory' seems like wishful thinking, apart from bills that solely circulate in the shadow economy (and as fistophobia knows, for that we use USD ).
 
Not just the serial number that needs to be tracked, you also need to track who withdrew/deposited it. In addition, that trail will be incomplete, you can track that a shop lodged the cash in a branch, you can't record where the shop got it from.

Secondly, under GDPR, you need a reason to retain data. So what is the reason for completing what in essence will be at best, a partial track. ? "just in case" is not a valid reason