In modern economies, relatively little of the money supply is in physical currency, in the U.S., only about 2% to 3% of the total money supply consists of physical coins and paper money.
In modern economies, relatively little of the money supply is in physical currency. For example, in December 2010 in the U.S., of the $8853.4 billion in broad money supply (M2), only $915.7 billion (about 10%) consisted of physical coins and paper money.