Talk:Contaminated currency

Worldwide

The article title is a generic term, so needs a global perspective. =Nichalp «Talk»= 19:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Or to be moved to a less generic title? – ukexpat (talk) 20:15, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Or even better, find studies that show similar contamination of other currencies, and not just illicit drugs. For instance, I am almost positive that pound notes smell like fish ;). - Hexhand (talk) 03:11, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, either it be moved to a more specific title, or include data from other countries. =Nichalp «Talk»= 07:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I welcome any addition of other instances of contamination of foreign currency. Clearly, the easiest step at this point would be to change the name to "Contaminated U.S. currency", but I think that if we do this, we miss out on the opportunity to elicit other instances. However, I am willing to concede the idea that if other instances occur, separate articles can be created and eventually merged if there is enough commonality. Thoughts? - Hexhand (talk) 15:55, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Sentence rewording

I'm not sure that the sentence "AIDS cannot be spread via banknote, any more than SARS can" is proper. I am switching it to: "SARS cannot be spread via banknote, any more than AIDS can." I believe this is what is intended. At this point, I believe it is well known that AIDS would not be communicable through handling money, and so SARS (which people may not be too sure of) is then compared to AIDS. AndyHuston (talk) 11:54, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

An excellent point, Andy. Thanks for bringing it up, and rearranging the text. :) - Hexhand (talk) 14:37, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Relevance?

I am unsure how the last sentence in this quote is relevant to the first: "...When 5,000 banknotes were tested in London in 2000, 99% of them had traces of cocaine on them. That tells us that there is potentially a massive problem in diagnosis and people's awareness of how easily hepatitis C can be contracted."[16] So, how exactly does the presence of cocaine on 99% of bank notes tell us anything about a problem with diagnosis of hepatitis C? I understand what is trying to be said, however I think that it is poorly communicated. Since quotes can not be altered (else it would not be a quote), I would suggest deleting it, or at least the last part of it...Just a thought! 63.76.209.49 (talk) 12:23, 31 July 2008 (UTC)Wolf

Would paraphrasing the quote be better? That way, we can deal with intent as well (or is that OR?) - Hexhand (talk) 14:39, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect picture

There is an electron microscopy picture of a grain of cocaine on a dollar bill. I doubt that its cocaine, because there is no labeling used to determine if its cocaine. The source of the picture is also a pretty weird website.Kroeliebuschie (talk) 08:35, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Eurozone

I am wondering if using the term Eurozone (substituted for Elsewhere in Europe here) might be inappropriate. It seems slightly derogatory. Thoughts? - Hexhand (talk) 14:51, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Category

As this is true, it shouldn't be listed as an Urban Legend, should it? Mr Larrington (talk) 13:50, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

Cocaine bonds with the ink used

I've read that the cocaine molecule bonds to the specific type of ink used to print currency. Could someone with more knowledge of chemistry and the reagents involved in the creation of currency relate as to whether cocaine is so difficult to wash from paper money due to its adhesive chemical properties with the ink type used? This would be notable to the article at hand. (what group upon its molecule reacts to what part of the ink, etc) 216.227.116.61 (talk) 20:55, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

The supporting evidence for "Five dollar bills have the most cocaine on them. This is because five dollar bills are the most printed bills in the U.S."

The conclusion in the second sentence is suspect, and if accurate really needs a supporting footnote because as it stands it seems to be counter-intuitive. Why would a greater prevalence of one type of bill have any effect upon the concentration of contaminants present on one such bill's surface? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.246.66.170 (talk) 12:49, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Odd math

The article states:

The author reports the analysis of ten randomly collected one-dollar bills from five cities (...) Results demonstrated that "92% of the bills were positive for cocaine".

I looked up the referenced study, and it does say that in the abstract... so I'm wondering if anyone can explain this. Cheers --Sysys (talk) 10:29, 9 July 2016 (UTC)

maybe it was 9 out of 10 but one of them was just like, caked with cocaine and the author thought that should have a value of an extra 2%--Mapsfly (talk) 00:19, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

There were actually 50 bills--ten each from five cities. There's a chart on page 191 of the referenced study that gives the micrograms per bill of each of the 50 bills; four are non-detect, representing 8% of the sample. Longpreamble (talk) 18:05, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Changes to be Considered

The wording of the second sentence seems grammatically incorrect, "In 1994, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that in Los Angeles, out of every four banknotes, on average more than three are tainted by cocaine or another illicit drug." Consider changing it to "In 1994, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that in Los Angeles, an average of three out of every four banknotes, are tainted by illicit drugs, such as cocaine." Also, the third photograph is not a reliable source. It claims to be a grain of cocaine inside a dollar bill, but with the source provided this is just an assumption, without any supporting evidence. Under the section Hepatitis-C Contamination, you have concluded " That tells us that there is potentially a massive problem in diagnosis and people's awareness of how easily hepatitis C can be contracted", try not to draw your own conclusions when writing an article, this claim is not scientifically proven. Lastly, under the section Elsewhere in the World, there is missing sources that are needed. — Summavibez (talk) 04:20, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Change naming

Would it be better to rename this entry as "Contaminated banknotes" rather than "contaminated currency"?

Source

CNN - Jack Sebastian (talk) 17:53, 26 June 2017 (UTC)

And another, from Scientific American. - Jack Sebastian (talk) 04:41, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Weird ± range for average cocaine in sampled bills

The article quotes the abstract of the article "Drug Contamination of US Paper Currency" to the effect that "Results showed that 92% of the bills were positive for cocaine with a mean amount of 28.75 ± 139.07 ug per bill, a median of 1.37 ug per bill, and a range of 0.01 - 922.72 ug per bill." It is confusing that a sample mean would have what appears to be a confidence interval; the mean of a sample is the mean; there's only a confidence interval if you're extrapolating to a population--which was not something the study was trying to do. Even more confusing is that the plus/minus is larger than the mean (suggesting somehow that the mean could be zero or negative). I went to the article and copied the data from the table to excel and confirmed that the mean, median, and range were reported correctly, but I still can't figure out what the plus/minus range is supposed to mean. I think it is confusing and should be omitted from the article; the mean amount is arguably relevant, but the range isn't, and is likely to perplex readers (if they notice it). Longpreamble (talk) 18:19, 25 July 2024 (UTC)