I just read an article in the March issue of World Coin News. It was about germs on currency and coins. It mostly addressed the problem with bills but did mention coins. It referred to a Scientific American article about the issue, which seems to think it was no big deal but which also said that just about everything that can be found has been found. Including, incidentally, white rhino DNA! Anyway, my point is that I had never really though much about this. I have hundreds of coins which have been around for a long time. I don't think I am worried too much about it: after all, I get circulated coins during my routine day. But I was curious. Has this ever occurred to anyone else as a concern about collecting?
Apparently, some people thought that the lowered surfaces (often called "incuse") on the US $2.5 and $5.00 Indian gold pieces could harbor diseases. I've never heard of any real cases of infection arising from that claim. My mother always used to tell me to wash my hands after handling large amounts of pocket change, but proving that I became sick from handling it would probably require enormous burdens of proof. I have no personal history of this, but apparently the threat is real enough to warrant a an academic paper: Paper money and coins as potential vectors of transmissible disease (looks like it requires a login and possibly payment to read). And there's this article from the UK's Daily Mail called "Scientists reveal the thousands of bacteria colonies growing on dirty coins and notes" But this article thinks the worries are overblown:Myth of dirty money exposed Who's right? I have no idea.
Every morning when I walk to work.. about 4:15 am, I find a few coins scattered around the streets that were dropped from the previous day. Whatever I find I quickly rinse under hot water after I spray with Windex! Don't know what could be on those coins
Frank Herbert (of Dune fame) wrote The White Plague which is about gendercidal terrorism that spreads a plague via paper money.
Well, as long as you're not from North Korea, and don't have to worry about 'nerve' agents being applied to things, I don't think there is much to worry.......
If you really want to be disgusted look up whats on your cell phone. We've been exposed to these germs all our lives and probably lived 20+ years before thinking about coins as anything but money. Nothing to really worry about
Always read that kids who grew up on farms were formidable indeed to resistance with germy stuff....Modern folks rely too much on antibiotics. Let your body slug it out on it's own. Stop visiting the MD at the first sign of a sniffle.
If a coin contains copper, I'd think that bacteria would have a tough time growing on it because copper is fairly antimicrobial if I recall correctly. Paper money is a whole different story, because paper is an excellent substrate for stuff to grow on.
After reading another post of yours, plus this one. I have come to the conclusion, you live in the ghetto.
Hehe, good one. Come to think of it, that Germ(any/ania) thing would also work in Italian. And as for how healthy (or not) coins are, no, I do not wash my hands after each contact with cash. Filthy lucre. Two articles about "money germs": CBS, April 2014 MasterCard (!), May 2014 Admittedly, the stories about cocaine traces on paper money have not kept me from using it either. Errm, the cash, that is. Christian
