Electronic money

[Roland Perry]

In article 
<CAEWR3ktn-naxBKEU_g+d67cE8t1-AhQikNWZJa8qpD-=u3xyOQ at mail.gmail.com>, 
Francis Davey <fjmd1a at gmail.com> writes
>Specifically I am interested in knowing if there are any systems of 
>open circulation "electronic money" that don't involve smart cards or 
>similar physical tokens.

PayPal balances seem to be the closest I'm aware of, although they may 
not be guaranteed by any useful state regulation/intervention.

A recent-ish innovation is that they have issued PayPal plastic which 
allows you to withdraw balances (within quite strict limits) from an 
ATM. As far as I can determine the best analogy is that it's a pre-pay 
Mastercard whose balance is topped up 'just enough' in real time while 
you are making a withdrawal.
-- 
Roland Perry