A stack of currency one mile high would contain over 14-1/2 million notes -- and a $40 billion stack would be 2,759 miles high -- or about the same distance as that from London to Baghdad.

"I have never before held in my hands this amount of money," he said as he counted some 10 million pounds, worth $6,600 at the pre-crisis rate but now less than $500 at the market rate.