genuine question, because I forgot a $20 with the laundry at work and I don’t know if the laundry is going to look green or if I’m going to get a white $20 back and clean clothes…

  • Ada
    link
    fedilink
    English
    216 months ago

    In Australia, they’re made of plastic, so they look just like they did before they went in, only cleaner…

  • @JusticeForPorygon
    link
    176 months ago

    American money is made of mostly cotton and linen, so it will wash like any other fabric.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    116 months ago

    In Canada, our cash is plastic. You have another chance if you wash it. It’s dead if you put it in the dryer though.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    76 months ago

    Bills are made to be able to go through the wash for the exact reason that yours ended up in the wash, people carry them around in their pockets and it’s easy to miss or forget about. The bill might look slightly more worn but it won’t have all the color washed out or anything like that, assuming you didn’t dump it in a load of whites with a ton of bleach. It shouldn’t hurt your clothes either.

    • @jeffw
      link
      86 months ago

      I think the washing resistance is more so to prevent counterfeiting in which people bleach bills and print them to be higher denominations.

      • @breadsmasher
        link
        English
        76 months ago

        I thought it was to make sure when money is laundered it doesn’t disintegrate in the machine

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        56 months ago

        It functions that way as well, but durability for every day use is also a consideration in the material choice. Bills being uncounterfeitable isn’t particularly useful if they’re constantly being removed from circulation because someone left a bill in their jeans when they washed them.

  • DontTakeMySky
    link
    16 months ago

    Eh. If it’s an old US bill it might come out a bit more ragged and fragile, but it won’t destroy the money or your laundry.

    Do it enough and the money would disintegrate, but a single wash won’t be a problem, just plan on being gentle when you extract it just in case.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    -36 months ago

    The laundry will be light pink, the green color of the US bank note is actually an optical illusion deliberately put there as a counterfitting meassure, they use red dye but only the reverse side of the dye to make it appear green, it is similar to red/green color blindness.

    Then when you launder the money, the dye gets jumbled and returns to it’s red color, this is mostly noticable on the normal laundry since dollar bills.