EWWWW! It just occured to me that the 90% have had one end of the rolled up bill in someone's nose! If ever there was a health reason to switch to Dollar coins and eliminate the rag buck this is it.
ROFL Of course, only a small percentage of bills were used for illicit purposes. The rest came into close contact in wallets etc. The 90% number is more a commentary on the sensitivity of trace chemical analysis.
Not really. Here in the euro area we have €1 and €2 circulation coins (currently $1.40 and $2.80), and yet our notes (€5 and above) have quite a bit of cocaine too. Here is an article in English about this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6208877.stm (from late 2006). Yes, there may be excellent reasons for getting rid of the rag dollar - but not because of those cocaine traces ... Note that, as in the US, there are regional differences within the euro area, as far as the amount of cocaine per note is concerned. Quite a bit of that "contamination" is indeed due to counting and sorting machines. Christian
chrisild, I'm not talking about the traces of cocaine. I'm talking about the... umm... bio-hazard from nose debris.
No this just means that if your sniffing, tasting, smelling a bill and nothing happens, you just got your bills from someone in church, or a little kids bank. Therefor keep on looking for that 90%.
If there was reason to chemically analyze paper money for other various agents; I bet petrolium products, cooking oil, beer, and probably saliva would show similar numbers also. Makes you want to wash your hands, don't it?
just got change for a twenty from my next door neighbor, and his bills blew that 90% out of the water. His went 99% easy and I don't know what was on the other one!!!!!:mouth:
