Check this out. It’s a deposit slip from the Commonwealth Bank, which you pick out of the pile when depositing money at the local branch. (Yes, Virginia, there is non-electronic currency.) It takes a little while to fill the form out, but by the time you get to the final figure you’re depositing, you’re given the capability to describe an eight figure amount in the boxes.
Yes, folks – you can walk in off the street, use the pen on the chain to fill in a deposit slip which is able to handle up to 1 cent shy of one hundred million dollars. There’s a website which set out to investigate what 1 million dollars actually looks like, and it’s no mean feat to transport that amount of money.
Hey, maybe the banks are making obscene profits and are a bit aloof, but I can’t help thinking that maybe they’d consider waiving the need to fill in the little green slip if you walked in the door with an amount of money that huge. On the other hand, maybe you’d need a little more paperwork if you were handing over a cheque with that many numbers.
As I turn around, I see a sign warning people that they need to give notice if they’re wanting to withdraw more than 5 thousand dollars, because they don’t handle that sort of money in the branch these days.
I think the ‘8 figures’ is probably a theoretical limit. I’d love to be able to test the theory one day, though.
How Many Figures Am I Holding Up?
BONWAG 