Pimp Your Currency

I recently offered a small prize at my local makerspace in the form of crispy twenty pound notes. Accordingly I asked my manservant to check down the back of the sofa for some cash.

Disappointingly he could find only rather scruffy notes. In rather irritated mood I told him to go away and crisp them, at which point he confessed that he didn't know what I meant. Fleetingly I toyed with the idea of dismissing him from my service and having his family sold for medical experiments, but it is hard to get good staff nowadays, so I decided a good ticking off would have to do.

I have prepared this instructable, in case you have also run into this problem.

Step 1: You Will Need

20 pound notes

Spray starch

An Iron and Ironing Board

Step 2: Preparation.

Give your notes a preliminary flattening. A force of approximately 23.97654 newtons will be adequate.

Step 3: Starch the Notes

Spray the notes with starch BOTH sides. do not overdo it though, we want crisp here not rigid.

Re-iron the notes.

Step 4: Results

Here we see some freshly crisped notes.

Now you too can always have a pristine note when you need one.

Comments

[alaskan_spud]

I tried step 2 using about 23.97653 newtons and my notes were not adequately flattened, but when I re-did step 2 using 23.97655 newtons I melted the whole thing. Do you have any suggestions for ensuring proper force applied?

[Veena Aravind]

I used to dip the currency in fresh water and then iron it. The same result was obtained.

[avocadostains]

That is nice. I feel funny using crumpled up bills. I think I might do this but launder the money first. Like actually launder it.

[Ageless Kronos]

cant do this in canada our currency is plastic based. tesults are not good lol

[davefhunt]

I can' speak for weather this would affect the pens. However banks usually use U.V. This is not affected(see attached)

[Edbed]

Can I suggest that the starch isn't a great idea due to the way most shops check for fake notes. Bank notes are made of pinned paper which contains no starch whereas normal paper does contain starch. Many shops use a special pen which has couloir less ink which will react and turn blue black on fake notes. This works as the ink contains iodine which reacts with starch to make a blue black colour. Because of this, your now crisp notes may be thought to be a forgery and so if you pay with them the ship will be within its rights to confiscate the note as they believe it to be a fake.

[verence]

Euro notes are made from cotton and will survive a ride in the washing machine (don't ask how I know :-) ) As they contain no starch, those pens are in use here as well. But I doubt that a shop can confiscate a potentially fake note. Just think a cashier gets some starch power on the finger rubs it on the note, uses the pen and voilà - say goodbye to your 50€. They may of course reject to accept the note and/or call the police.

[Edbed]

I think they can keep notes they reasonably believe to be fakes because if they then give them back to you they could be seen to be committing conspiracy to defraud. However, if you were to argues then they would probably give you the note or call the police.

I also believe this is how the police in the UK check to see if a note might be fake, if so they then confiscate the note and give you a receipt. They then give the note to the Bank of England to test if it is a fake and if it is not a fake you are refunded.

Anyway if you are interested in this you should probably look it up as I may be wrong.

[Edbed]

This is just to do with British bank notes, I do not know what sort of paper other currencies are made of.

[cynicalsprite]

Mmmmm, I think I'd love the smell of freshly laundered, starched, and ironed bills. Sounds lovely :) I expect this is just for countries with paper currency though. Sadly, Canadians cannot have freshly starched and ironed bills. Our current currency is a synthetic polymer and will melt like a bread bag left in contact with a toasting toaster. Not that I've ever done that really. Or maybe I have. Yes, I have. Melted plastic is a mess.

[Edbed]

To correct my typos, *bank notes are made of linen paper, *had colourless ink, * the shop will be.

[JulianAzz]

great idea, does this work with all paper currency?