On the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas, there is a two-storey factory churning out a vast number of dollar bills every day for the United States Federal Reserve. When Oliver Bullough visited, he counted 129 pallets in one room, collectively containing more than $4 billion. He also watched a woman use a jack to casually shift another $64 million across the concrete floor. Yet he barely used cash on his visit to the Lone Star state, relying on credit cards and smartphone apps, apart from when tipping waiters. As he points out, this is increasingly typical: many fewer Americans or Brits are bothering with cash, and when they do it is for small transactions. So why is more and more money being printed in such places, and in the biggest denominations?

The answer, he suggests, is money laundering. Those dollars grease the global network used by gangsters, terrorists and thieves to evade the law and fund their operations and bank profits. This is why the value of US dollar bills has hit a record high, despite the waning use of cash in the country. It explains why the $100 bill – the third most common banknote in circulation after the $20 and $1 two decades ago – now comprises about 80 per cent of paper dollars at a time when most citizens use small denominations – if at all. It is a similar story with Canadian dollars, Swiss francs and the pound sterling. But then, according to one estimate, 70 per cent of dollars........

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