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DIRTY MONEY RUMORS AND EBOLADavid Pickup submitted this timely and historically interesting question about
"dirty money." Thanks! -Editor
I was asked today if you can catch Ebola from coins or paper money. I looked quickly on the Internet and the disease is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, so presumably the answer is no. I wondered if there have been health scares before where coins were suspect. Apparently during the plague in England in the Seventeenth Century smallholders from the villages around London were unable to enter the city and left vegetables in market areas, and sold their goods by shouting. They collected their payment after the money had been left in a bucket of water to "disinfect" the coins. As late as 1990 there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in Glasgow which lead to calls for disinfecting all the trams, all the ferries, even all the coins which are in people's pockets in case they should carry some kind of contagion. Probably you cannot catch disease from coins but by being generous with them you can help prevent it. What do readers think? Great topic! There have been untold numbers of studies of the germs, drugs and
other residue found on our money, yet I don't recall any that have shown any significant health
risk. I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see an enterprising panhandler with a poncho, gloves,
bucket of chorine and a sign reading, "Is your money carrying Ebola? Don't risk it - drop
it here." -Editor
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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