The feel of money
Howard Lake | 20 October 2009 | Blogs
We all like the feel of money, whether it’s our own or the money that we raise for charitable causes. But have you stopped to think what banknotes are made of?
Photo: Refracted Moments on Flickr.com
I had assumed it was some kind of paper, but that is not so. I learned this in an article in Wired UK magazine this month, The Inkjet Counterfeiter by Adam Higginbotham.
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I now know that “UK notes are printed on paper made from a mixture of cotton fibre and linen rag; euro notes are printed on 100 per cent cotton; and US notes are printed on paper composed of 75 per cent cotton and 25 per cent linen, giving it a feel that’s easily distinguished from the smooth wood-pulp paper commonly used in copiers”.
Which would explain, I now realise, why most banknotes can survive an accidental session in a back pocket in the washing machine.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.