the euro is disappearing - literally!

strange story on the bbc website about genuine euro banknotes in germany being affected by some unknown substance (thought to be sulphuric acid) which is causing the banknotes to become brittle and crumble away.

it could be a possible blackmail attempt but they mention nothing about any threats being made by anyone so thats probably speculation. strange in any case.

story

They also seem certain that foul play is definatly a factor, no errors could be found in the production process and no problems could be found in the ATM's that put out the bills in question.

The substance on the notes isn't sulpheric acid but sulfaat salt which turns into sulferic acid when it comes in contact with moist like sweat.

Very weird -- and how are they going to work out compensation for this?

When I saw the topic I thought, oh the US must finally be doing something about the strong Euro. Having actually read the post and article, im still not sure they arent. Lol.

as an updatee on this story, some people have been suggesting that methamphetamine may be causing the decay of the notes.

however this story is a little off in my eyes as all the affected notes appear to be disintegrating after being withdrawn from cash machines, meaning either A) a few druggies are working for the banks filling up the cash machines or B) no-one uses any other bank notes for their drugs unless it just came from the cash machine.

the pattern on the pictured note would also suggest that note was probably not rolled up and used for sniffing drugs because the most exposed side (ie the inside rolled up edge) doesnt show the most amount of damage.

of course there is also the question as to why the notes never did this earlier than a few months. people has used banknotes for years for sniffing certain drugs so why is it affecting banknotes that ought to be designed and manufactured with that damage in mind?

story update

[edit on 13-11-2006 by justyc]

I never really trusted the Euro, I never thought it was a good idea to tie one country's economy the that of 5 or 6 other countries. However, I never thought of somthing like this. Certainly is a novel way to keep the people in economic enslavement.

Maybe the chemicles came from some part of the ATM machines themselves. Or possible residue from the trucks they were carried in. I really don't know, it could even be a prank.

Maybe it was Romulans

I do know that if my money starts disintegrating I'm going to be very POed