Mural tribute to Paisley’s PIN inventor

The Paisley man who invented PIN and ATM technology has been immortalised in a new street mural in his home town.

James Goodfellow created the technology behind the Personal Identification Number and Automatic Teller Machine but did not get the fruits for his ideas.

When the humble ‘hole-in-the-wall’ celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, Mr Goodfellow revealed that he got just £10 for the industry-changing technology he created.

He told of how he earned just $15 (around £10) and has not made a penny more since from the patent for a machine which is used by millions of people around the world every day.

“You can imagine how I feel when I see bankers getting £1 million bonuses”, he said at the time. “I wonder what they contributed to the banking industry more than I did to merit a £1 million bonus. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but that’s the way of the world.”

Mr Goodfellow did receive an OBE in 2006 from for services to banking as “patentor of the personal identification number” but now artist Shaun Devenney, who is now lives next door to the inventor in the Renfrewshire town, has painted a mural on the side of one of Paisley’s supermarkets.

Mr Devenney said: “It has certainly been received well by the community. I showed it to James and he was taken aback by it.”

“I spoke to the owner of the building and he’s happy for me to go ahead.

“I wanted to do this for James because every time I tell someone my neighbour invented the PIN, they don’t believe me.

“I don’t think he ever really got the recognition he deserves, so I thought this would be a nice thing to do for him.

“It’ll be on the wall facing the road. I picked that spot because it’s near to where James stays and is a good wall to paint on.

“I’ve been doing some murals for a while, but this is my biggest one yet. I’m looking forward to it.

“I’ll hopefully get it done in the next few weeks, I just need to wait for a good weekend. It’ll just take two days, but the weather needs to be right.”

Mr Goodfellow, 80, said he was touched.

The mural can be seen at the Spar shop in Rowan Street, Hunterhill.