Yes, I said counting money can make you sick, literally. Money is filthy and could really use a good laundering. Studies have shown that a majority of US Bills are contaminated with cocaine. Drug traffickers handle the bills and drug users roll bills into straws to sniff cocaine. The ATM machines are contaminated with the drugs on their rollers and brushes and spread the drugs to other bills.
A 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed found pathogens – including staphylococcus – on 94% of dollar bills tested. Paper money can reportedly contain more germs than the average household toilet. Paper bills are a favorable environment for gross microbes: viruses and bacteria can live on most surfaces for about 48 hours, but paper money can sustain a live flu virus for up to 17 days. It’s enough to make you sick!
My mother used to say, “Don’t put money in your mouth. It is dirty!”. She was so right. Coins are even dirtier than paper money. Just look at your hands after counting coins or playing a slot machine and you’ll see the grimy proof. Coins pass through many hands before they get to you. They are never cleaned or washed. They are sometimes stored in pockets with used tissues, in kids shoes and in many other strange places. You never know where a coin has been before you handle it.
If you have a business that handles cash, you need to use electronic means to count and sort your paper bills and coins. Manually counting and sorting currency and coins means handling the cash several times and the subsequent exposure to any germs, narcotics or other contaminants on the money. Automatic counting is faster, more accurate and cleaner. As an added bonus, since it is nearly impossible to identify counterfeit money manually, the electronic bill counter can catch any fake bills as well.
Electronic bill counters and coin counters are readily available and come in all sizes and speeds to match your business needs. You can buy a good reliable counter for as little as a few hundred dollars or as much as several thousand, depending on the needs of your specific business. It is easy to determine the cash-counting needs for your business and to match those needs with the appropriate machine. It is not a major investment and is a business tool that can easily pay for itself in time and accuracy, as well as protecting you from those pesky germs!