WE’RE IN THE LAST days of wallets as we know them. The few things I still carry—credit cards and IDs, a MetroCard and proof of insurance—have been or soon will be easily duplicated digitally.
Yet my tech-savvy father is still buying more and more wallets, piling them in boxes, stuffing them in bookshelves, tucking an extra in his car’s center console. “I’m always searching for the best fit for my pocket,” he said. Each time I’m home he offers me his elegant castoffs—no patina or stains or marks where a coin has worn the leather....