On Tue, 16 Sep 2008, Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article ,
(Tom Anderson) wrote:

The problem is that cash comes in doses of 10 or 20 pounds, as notes.
You cannot get money from a cash machine in any smaller quantity.

Er, I regularly get cash in £5 notes from a cash machine (in Cambridge).

Right, so that's one. Out of about 65 000. And it's in Cambridge. And you
still can't put fivers in a ticket machine!

Yes, there are fiver-dispensing cash machines, but sadly, very few - the
only one in Oxford i was aware of switched over to 10+20 a couple of years
ago.

Here's a nice story about the origin of cash machines, and the extensive
research that went into setting PINs at four digits:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6230194.stm

tom

--
Any problem in computer science can be solved with another layer of
indirection. -- David Wheeler