Context

Why Sweden

Sweden is the most cashless society on the planet, with barely 1% of the value of all payments made using coins or notes last year. Across the country, cash is now used in less than 20% of transactions in stores - half the number five years ago, according to the Riksbank, Sweden's central bank. Portable technologies have enabled market traders to take card payments easily. Swish, a smartphone payment system, is another popular Swedish innovation used by more than half the country's 10 million-strong population.

“Prof Arvidsson predicts that the use of cash will most likely be reduced to ‘a very marginal payment form’ by 2020.”

Back at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, Prof Arvidsson points out that while most Swedes have embraced the nation's cash-free innovations, two-thirds don't want to get rid of notes and coins completely. "There's a very strong emotional connection to cash among Swedes, even though they do not use it," he says. And this is one of the reasons why the Sweden government is commissioning this memorial.