The world's first cash machine opened for business in London
On this day · 27 June 1967
A sitcom star fed a paper voucher into a wall in Enfield and walked away with cash, inventing a daily ritual for billions.
On June 27, 1967, a branch of Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London, unveiled the world’s first automated cash machine. There were no plastic cards: customers fed in a special paper voucher, marked with mildly radioactive carbon-14 for the machine to read, and a four-digit code released a single £10 note.
The machine grew out of an idea by engineer John Shepherd-Barron of the printing firm De La Rue, who said inspiration struck him in the bath as he imagined a dispenser for cash rather than chocolate bars. The four-digit PIN is often credited to his wife, who could remember four numbers but not six.
The first withdrawal was made not by a banker but by Reg Varney, star of the sitcom On the Buses, before a watching crowd and the Mayor of Enfield.
The contraption was clunky and the vouchers were single-use, but the idea endured. Today cash machines number in the millions worldwide.
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