German bank inundated with damaged money

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Germany’s central bank says it has been inundated with damaged bank notes after deadly floods that hit part of the country in July. The notes are worth more than €50 million (¥6.1 billion), the bank said. The Bundesbank said Sept. 1 that individuals and banks have handed in notes that were soaked in the floods and often also contaminated with oil, sewage or mud. The damaged money is dried, processed and then destroyed at a center in Mainz that analyzes forged and damaged money, and its owners are refunded without charge. The bank said that the center usually receives damaged bills to the tune of €40 million per year. This year, it received €51 million worth of notes from the flood-hit areas in western Germany between mid-July and the end of August. Germans still tend to use cash more than people in many other European countries. After they are dried, the damaged notes are flattened out, verified and counted. The Bundesbank said it bought dryers to deal with the influx of dirty money, noting that it’s important to process soaked notes quickly before they clump together and become as hard as concrete. (AP) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.