Stephen Fry's Key to the City Page #3

in this case the high street banks,

when necessary.

And this is just one of the rooms

full of cash.

There's apparently over 20 billion

in these vaults.

I can't help thinking of Liza

Minnelli and Joel Grey.

Money!

A Mark, a Yen, a Buck or a Pound.

It's all that makes the world go

round. Look at it.

It's all here. You think of the Bank

of England,

you think of a noble edifice with

columns in front of it.

The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street.

And here's all this raw cash.

They say in movies, the directors,

that audiences always follow the

money.

Even if it's someone in a cafe

pushing a $20 bill

across to someone else, the human

eye always follows it.

We're obsessed with it. It's kind

of...

Our breath comes in short gasps when

we see so much of it around us.

There's something about the sheer

physical presence of money

that brings out something

very puzzling and dark within us.

Well, in each cage there's about 4

million

and in the room as a whole, there's

about $2 billion

of new bank notes that haven't yet

been issued.

And ones that you, as Chief Cashier,

have signed.

- Not individually, obviously. - No.

Just the one signature

which has been repeated a few times

- modern technology.

That must be a marvellous feeling to

see your name on these.

- It says it there.

- Yes. Just there.

So you sat down with a piece

of paper and did a few versions

of your signature and...

It was as unsophisticated as that.

You're given an A4 sheet with three

boxes.

You can do three attempts and then

you tick your best one.

Or, in my case, you print off a

second sheet...

- Until you felt you'd got it right.

- ..and print your best one.

Then it goes off to be photocopied,

I guess. And there it is.

When you go to a cash machine and out

comes this,

and you look at it and you see your

name there, do you get a thrill?

Erm...there's an element of that.

It would be untrue to pretend

otherwise.

But, I mean, there is a more serious

point.

The reason why we have the Chief

Cashier's signature on the note

is to underscore the importance we

place on the institution.

On the fact people can trust their

bank.

- It's why we have the signature

there. - It's an elaborate IOU.

It's a promissory note. A lot will be

watching this thinking,

"The weakest point - the point where

we can move in -

is when you're transporting it."

Somebody orders a few of these

crates.

Somehow you've got to get them into

a van and on to the street

without anybody following you.

Causing you to crash against a wall.

Doing that Sweeney stuff.

Presumably, you can't tell me

anything about how you do that.

We move the cash safely.

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