Money laundering question

I need to get some money cleaned.

I have a pile of small US bills that probably spent decades in someone’s damp basement, as they smell like mold. Otherwise, they’re fine.

Now I could just ignore the smell and spend them, but I’m just curious how they could be cleaned. I tried household bleach (that works for some mold problems), both diluted and straight, but not for more than a few seconds since I don’t know the long-term effects; would bleach eventurally remove the printing?

The bleach treatment didn’t do much. My bank didn’t have any suggestions. Any ideas?

You could put them in a mesh bag and wash them the next time you do laundry. People wash money in the washing machine all the time by mistake and it comes out smelling fresh. I would just lay it out flat on a table to let it dry. Don’t make the common money laundering mistake of pinning each bill to a clothes line. It looks gauche.

I don’t get it - are these special bills you want to keep? Banks help the Treasury weed out old currency - you can let them do it. If the cashier doesn’t want to exchange the bills, you could deposit the money, then go over to an ATM and withdraw it again.

That defeats the point of this thread. I want to learn how mold – if it is mold – can be removed from these bills, without losing any value, of course.

When I’ve accidentally put bills in the washer, then the dryer, they came out all rolled up. But I guess if I ran a tub with bills only, then dried them by hand, it might work. I’d hate to have them chewed up by the agitator if there were no clothes present. Maybe add some rags?

Soak them a little bit in white vinegar (or vinegar/water mixture), then rinse and let them dry. It’s a pretty common method to remove musty/mildew smell in cloth, and US bills are pretty much just a specialized form of cloth.

Vinegar is a good idea. You could also try baking soda. (Silly typo, I first wrote “banking soda.”) That’s what people use to get the musty smell out of old books.

Put the bills in a ziplock bag, pour in lots of baking soda, seal and wait. You can repeat this as often as needed. It should dry out and kill the mold, and remove the smell.

Do these bills have a sentimental or collectible value? If not, I wouldn’t feel too scrupulous about just spending them = I’ve seen money that smells and/or looks AWFUL in circulation and haven’t seen anyone refuse anything due to odor.

I’ve spent a fistful of pennies that wee subject to a wet environment, with many of them heavily green, and they were accepted by whatever clerk I foisted them on.

These bills will be spent. This is just an intellectual exercise. I want to know how to clean bills because I want to know how to clean bills, OK? Besides, I couldn’t resist starting a thread on money laundering.

So far, bleach doesn’t do much. Vinegar, maybe, but not a perfect solution. Baking soda – I don’t have any fresh, but I put some old stuff in a plastic bag with a couple of bills and we’ll see what happens.

The problem is I don’t know how dilute or strong any solution should be or how long they should soak, or how long NOT to soak in case they get damaged by the treatment. So there’s a lot of trial and error. So far, nothing I have done seems to have damaged them.

Any archivists out there who have to clean up books from basements without damaging them further?

If you just want the value of the bills, turn them in to the bank.

For books, there are a variety of treatments. One way is to use cat litter, unused of course, or baking soda.

But your OP said “I need to get some money cleaned”, which you don’t. You could have said “What if I …” or “Suppose that I …”, so don’t get all snippy when people offer to help you.