On any Sunday, the Rev. Reginald Walker passes the plate at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Vinita, Okla., and it comes back filled with neatly folded U.S. bills, and coins. Davies' purchase and Walker's collection plate represent an ancient but endangered style of commerce. Many experts say that some time in the first half of the 21st century, that kind of money will disappear. Convenience, security, speed. The same reasons early societies moved from cattle as currency to coins.
Technology usually evolves in the direction of ease and convenience.
It was easier, for example, to carry a sack of silver and gold coins in ancient Turkey than to travel with cows. And it is easier today for desk-bound workers to buy their spring vegetable seeds at a company's web site than fight traffic after work to get to the garden supply store. Still, that's the way we seem to be going. Today, anything from tomato plants to pornographic videotapes to home mortgages can be had on the Internet. And those with something to sell are still catching up to individuals who want to buy.