1 In writing this paper I have drawn extensively upon a valuable report prepared by the Secretariat of the Australian Payments System Council, July 1995. Opinions expressed are my own and are not those of the report or of the Council.

[2] As was demonstrated by the Nixon tapes.

3 The Mondex system permits card-to-card transfers using an "electronic wallet", a small terminal device which would accept the two cards and the instructions for making the transfer.

4 Report to the Council of the European Monetary Institute on Prepaid Cards by the Working Group on EU Payment Systems, May 1994.

5 The Netscape encryption system was broken; see the report in the Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 1995.

[6] California Bankers Association v Schultz 416 US 21 (1975) at 85.

[7] For an entertaining, and frightening, example of what might be done, see Van Tassel, "Daily Surveillance Sheet from a Nationwide Databank" (1987) 24 Computers and People 31.

8 In an effort to combat money laundering the United States has recently ceased the issue of notes with a face value of more than $100: see Wenninger and Laster, "The Electronic Purse" in (1995) Current Issues in Economics and Finance 1.

9 One suggestion is that the card be programmed so that transactions for more than some threshold amount would require a PIN to complete.