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OPINION: Plastic money fobs off need for handy pocket

Grant WoodhamsGeraldton Guardian
Male mobile phone users usually place their androids or otherwise in a normal trouser pocket. There doesn't seem to be a fob pocket designed to specifically hold a mobile phone.
Camera IconMale mobile phone users usually place their androids or otherwise in a normal trouser pocket. There doesn't seem to be a fob pocket designed to specifically hold a mobile phone. Credit: Getty Images / Thinkstock

This week a question for men. What has happened to the fob pocket?

These days most of the change I get when I spend a dollar, so to speak, goes into an old coffee jar.

One dollar coins, two dollar coins and smaller denominations separated out and allocated different jars.

I suspect I’m not the only one who does this sort of thing. Perhaps I am, I often need help...

For some reason I was thinking about this the other day. I had been given a handful of change and unconsciously had gone to put it in my fob pocket, but I didn’t have one. When I returned home I divided up the coins as I have done for quite some years now.

But the question of the fob still remained. Are they on or in trousers any more? None of mine have one.

The fob pocket historically was a place to put a fob watch. It was an accessory on a pair of gentleman’s trousers where he could place and protect his watch. The watch was normally attached to a small chain connected to his suit coat or jacket. That was in the era before wrist watches. The wrist watch all but spelled the end of the fob watch but yet for some reason the fob pocket endured, a place for a spare key perhaps or in my case somewhere for coins of the realm.

Courtesy of the mobile phone, the wristwatch may also soon be a thing of the past, though expensive jewellery in the form of a noticeable timepiece will probably always endure.

In my experience I note that male mobile phone users usually place their androids or otherwise in a normal trouser pocket. There has been no fob as far as I’m aware designed to specifically hold a mobile phone.

But returning to the use of coins, I think sadly with the age of plastic money in all its guises, the demise of the fob pocket is practically assured.

I have no doubt that a tailor in some place such as Bali, Hong Kong or Singapore might be convinced to add a fob pocket to a bespoke suit. But I’m sure it would come at a cost, certainly far more than the amount of coins you could fit in at any time.

In the meantime I’ll stick to coffee jars.

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