It makes the world go ’round

I haven’t taught you guys anything in a while so because of the current economic turmoil I thought I would teach you a little something about money.

Pay your taxes

You know the phrase “Pay through the nose”? I think it is a little misleading. It really should be “Pay with the nose”. It comes from the Danes that lived in Ireland in the ninth century. Apparently the punishment for not pay their taxes was that their nose was cut off. The nose? I find it strange but most likely an effective punishment.

Dirty Money

Money is dirty we all know that. Mothers have been telling their kids about that fact for years. It passes through the hands thousands of people a year. It is used at the drug store, banks, delis, strip clubs and given to beggars on the street. They have been known to have traces of fecal bacteria, e coli, and staphylococcus. But something else has been appearing on paper money.

In 1997 there was a study done at the City University in Dublin where 100% of the bills they tested had traces of cocaine. There were also other studies done in the US where they found a majority of the bills had a dusting of the white powder. There have been 2 major suggestions as to how this is possible. It is either there is so much drug use in the world today that all the bills at some point has been used to snort the stuff or passed through a users hand or it could be that counting machines and ATMs transfer traces of the drug from one bill to another.

See I think we know why rich people are so happy. They literally get high on their money.

How long does it last?

I don’t know why but I found it really hard to find statistics on Canadian money but I don’t think it would be that much different than the US stats other than we don’t have a $1 bill.

The life span of a coin is about 30 years. That is pretty much uniform right across the board. But for bills there are large variations.

$1 – 22 Months
$5 – 24 Months
$10 – 18 Months
$20 – 25 Months
$50 – 55 Months
$100 – 60 Months

I am assuming this would be due to the amount of handling done to each bill. I guess that would mean the $10 bill is the bill that is used the most. But bills are also subject to tearing, stains, and other mutilations. Even though those numbers are averages it is possible for a bill to be in circulation for only a couple of days.

Tra