Since the second world war, the US dollar has been the world’s hegemonic currency. It took over that role from the British pound. So it is not surprising that the story of the pound often looks like a memento mori, the skull that medieval rulers placed before them to remind themselves of the transience and fallibility of the human condition. By the second world war, the US was obviously a much more powerful economy than Britain.

Now, given the combination of the rapid decline of the dollar and the eurozone overtaking the US as the world’s largest economic area, we may be set for another seismic currency shift. It is one in which the euro takes over the baton from the dollar.