Money Made of Linen?

‘  When I was a little kid, I always wondered how money survived a trip through the washing machine.’  I would often leave dollar bills in my pocket and look at the crinkled aftermath slightly bewildered.’  Even as a child, I knew that paper plus water equaled mush.

As much as I enjoyed toying with that inexplicably crinkled money, I was curious to unfold the mystery surrounding it.’  Cash is not your typical paper it turns out.’ ‘ 

To rewind just a little bit, perhaps we should first discuss paper more in depth. ‘ Normal paper, such as newspaper or notebook paper, is made out of cellulose.’  For this, trees are chemically broken down into wood fibers.’  Then, the cellulose fibers are selected to form very thin sheets of paper.

The process to create paper money is quite different.’  For the production of money, cotton and linen fabric are beaten into fibers.’  This is then used to produce the money we handle.’  There is 25% linen and 75% paper in the money we handle.’  Interestingly, before World War I silk was the chosen fiber used in place of linen.

The fibers that bond together money are much stronger than the ones holding together regular paper.’  The fibers used in money are basically unaffected by water, whereas cellulose fibers absorb water and then fall apart when wet.’ 

Well, that solves the big mystery.’  It’s an interesting fact and makes a lot of sense when you consider how durable linen is. ‘  This is also nice because I greatly prefer my money when it is not disintegrating.