Have you ever thought of numismatics as being hazardous? Currently in the news are reports of over 3000 different types of bacteria on each piece of currency that we handle. This includes anthrax and diphtheria. While bleaching your currency would kill the bacteria and improve the appearance of the note, it does ruin the numismatic value of that note. The up side to this is maybe this information could be used to encourage the use of dollar coins.
Cents: Finally found my first 2014 cent on April 6th, it was from Philadelphia. Finding a Denver mint issue could take a while, I still haven’t pulled a 2013-D from circulation. Stumbled across a nice 1970-S cent. Found a 1978 full red cent in change that looked like it came from a fresh roll.
Nickels: Some nice 1964 Jefferson’s this time. It is hard to go through a roll of nickels and not find a five cent piece from that year. The combined mintage for the year 1964 is almost 2.8 billion. They still show up every day and they are now fifty years old!
Dimes: Still have not found anything to mention yet this year. I usually find new dimes fairly early in the year but no 2014 dated examples yet.
Quarters: Just received a beautiful 2013 Mt. Rushmore twenty-five cent piece. I am still receiving fresh mint state quarters from previous years as they slowly make their way into circulation. Three 2012 quarters coming out of a new bank wrapped roll were handed to me a one time.
Currency: Just old smelly, dirty, bacteria infested money. I am spending it as fast as I receive it!
Well I am going to continue my street collecting, hoping to keep the street off of my collection. I never used a coin laundry before however I see them everywhere. Maybe I should start running my change and currency through one?