Today, the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney unveiled the new polymer ten pound note. This comes little under a month since the world's first cash machine celebrated its 50^th birthday. Half a century ago, the first one was installed in Enfield in north London ? unveiled by the late sitcom star Reg Varney, for all you quizzers.

Cash still holds a special place in the hearts of most of us in the UK. Many of us feel an attachment to the pound that goes beyond its use to make and receive payments. For some, it is bound up with our notion of ?Britishness?, with each coin and note displaying the face of our Queen.

Since the first one was introduced, the humble cash machine has transformed our ability to manage our finances by giving us access to cash outside bank branch opening hours. It also enables us to check our balance, change our PIN and even pay bills. Today there are over 70,000 cash machines in the UK and more than 3.6 million worldwide.

At present, cash machines remain by far the most popular way for us to access our cash ? unsurprisingly over 9 in 10 of us used a cash machine in 2016. Encouragingly for UK consumers, over three quarters of our cash machines are free-to-use and over 98% of all withdrawals are made free of charge.

Five years ago in 2012 cash machine withdrawals in the UK peaked at 2.9 billion. Since then, withdrawals have slowly declined which reflects the nation's changing payments habits.

Increasingly, we hear questions asking whether the UK is destined to become a cash-free society. Just the other week, I appeared on BBC Breakfast alongside a small business owner from south London who had taken the bold decision to stop accepting cash in his coffee shop. While examples of other businesses taking the same step are few and far between, this is something that we could see more of over time. Also, last week Visa said it is considering offering incentives to UK businesses to go cashless.

Our growing love for plastic and digital payments has really contributed to a decline in cash use in recent years. We now have a generation of customers who are happy to use their card not just on the high street but everywhere from the pub to the dentist and of course online.

More recently it is the arrival of contactless technology on our cards that has not only increased the number of places where you can use your card but made it easier and more convenient to pay this way. As contactless has become more popular and widespread in the past few year years, we have seen a large migration of low-value cash payments to card payments. In fact, the popularity of contactless has led us to bring forward the predicted date when debit cards will overtake cash as the most frequently-used payment method in the UK.

Despite this, however, cash is predicted to remain a popular way of paying for things for the foreseeable future. Cash is very much preferred by certain people and in certain situations, and remains the method of payment that is universally recognised and can be used even on those rare occasions when modern technology lets us down. Many people find that using cash helps them to manage their budgets and keep control of their spending. People with lower incomes are particularly likely to rely exclusively on cash for their day-to-day spending.

If we look to the future, cash is going nowhere fast. Even in ten years? time, cash will still be the second most frequently-used payment method in the UK, accounting for around one in every five payments. No surprise then that investment in cash continues apace. Recently we have had the introduction of the ?plastic fiver? and ten pound note, the new, 12-sided £1 coin and the new £20 is expected to follow by 2020.

Given the critical role cash plays for so many and in so many situations, and despite speculation to the contrary, all the evidence suggests that it will remain an important option for the foreseeable future.