# American Cash has a distinctive smell - any reason? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2009, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cash-has-a-distinctive-smell-any-reason/511961 "2009-09-29T10:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cash-has-a-distinctive-smell-any-reason/511961/21 "2009-09-30T16:34:19Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Hmm, just did an experiment. I have a few US bills, a few Euros, Oz and Singaporean in my wallet. So the result? US bills did smell a tiny bit, and yes a recognisable smell. But the Euro had a similar but more muted smell. The Singapore and Oz bills are both plastic. Both also had tiny bit of the smell. The US bills were pretty new, in fact I think the $100 was practically mint. Maybe this is why it was a muted smell. But it has been in my wallet for ages. > > The smell? To me the overall smell, is maybe the smell of being in a leather wallet. It isn’t the same smell as the wallet, but I wonder if the bills selectively absord some part of the smell. > > My wallet is a US made wallet. It seems doubtful, but maybe there is some difference to the processes it underwent relative to other countries. Or maybe the US paper absorbs differently, or has some subtle chemical interaction difference. Actually, at least one other bit of paper that has been in the wallet for years also has a bit of the charateristic smell. > So that is my theory. I use the same wallet in the US and in Canada. When in the US, the wallet and the US bills have a distinctive smell. The smell fades after a few days back in Canada with Canuck money. I will try to conduct more sophisticated experiments on my next trip south. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cash-has-a-distinctive-smell-any-reason/511961/22 "2009-09-30T17:09:18Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > [It’s not just an urban legend](http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/), but these are incredibly tiny amounts of cocaine and probably not enough to produce any kind of smell. And if the smell is strongest on new bills - which I agree it is - that doesn’t support a cocaine-related explanation. On top of which, there will be trace amounts of all sorts of stuff on the bills. It’s an absorbent medium, people don’t wash their hands to handle money, and jam the bills into their pockets along with whatever else is in there. Rather than this factoid, I’d be curious to hear an overall breakdown of the contaminants typically found on well-circulated bills. The rag stock is unique, but similar enough to that used for other applications that I have to go with the ink. If it were a matter of the contaminants, something unique would have to be getting picked up on US bills as opposed to others, and that seems improbable. BTW, saying it’s not paper is a matter of semantics - if the stock used for US bills isn’t paper, neither is a lot of high quality stationery and so on. By common dictionary definitions, “paper” doesn’t have to be made out of wood pulp - anything fibrous will do - for example: > [@](#): > > a substance made from wood pulp, rags, straw, or other fibrous material, usually in thin sheets, used to bear writing or printing, for wrapping things, etc. If you insist it’s not really paper, what are you going to call “rag paper”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cash-has-a-distinctive-smell-any-reason/511961.md?page=1)