Bacteria, pet DNA, cocaine, and fecal matter. Nope, this isn’t an episode of Narcos. According to MarketWatch, that’s exactly what is lingering on your cold hard cash. Scientists have stated that up to 80% of dollar bills contain trace amounts of cocaine and 94% contain staphylococcus bacteria (germs that cause skin infections, food poisoning, and even septic arthritis.) Horse and dog DNA are popular contaminants as well, which begs the question; Why are we still licking our fingers to count money?


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Reddit user u/Igloo-Pincher had a more aggressive reminder to the public; Wash your hands and stop licking your fingers.


“I once saw some old lady bring the bills to her mouth before counting and I never wanted to smack a person more than in that instance,” Redditor SSS_Tempest recalled of their time working in retail.  While the user burntoutcashier echoed the ‘spit’ sentiment in terms of plastic bags, “They do this with the bags too! They try to help and like, thanks but no thanks. They lick their fingers before opening the bags up for me, and I have to touch the bag!! If you can’t open the bag without spit, don’t.”


The unsanitary cousin to ‘saliva cash’ is ‘sweat money.’ According to an NYU study that found over 3,000 types of bacteria on one batch of dollar bills, adding boob/foot sweat to cash definitely isn’t helping the problem.





Cleaning cash at home is a possibility, but it’s a tedious task and there’s no standard protocol for sanitizing money. There are, however, some common sense solutions, including washing your damn hands before and after handling money.


In the words of Redditor godjustendit, “Just because you're old or your hands are dry does not mean you are immune to spreading germs.” Stop licking your fingers you goddamn heathens!