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Money can burn a hole in your pocket

The new $20 bills explode when you try to microwave them because of the tracking device embedded behind Andrew Jackson's right eye.

Published Friday, March 05, 2004 7:00 AM by oldnewthing
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Comments

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 7:16 AM by John Wilson
Well, the same thing happens to copy paper if you microwave it in a stack like that. Plus, some of those bills aren't the new new 20's, they're the old new 20s -- the old new ones have a circle around Jackson's head, and the new new ones don't.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 7:21 AM by Raymond Chen
(I should have written "alleged tracking device".)

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 7:27 AM by Tim Smith
I put a frog in my microwave and it burst into flames. Around the right eye no less. I guess the government is placing RFID tags in frogs.

Logically, that article is so flawed it is funny.

Where are these RFIDs? Without hard proof of the RFIDs (as in extracting one from the bill), the conclusion is flawed since contradictory examples can be presented.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 7:37 AM by Raymond Chen
Agreed. All that the article really demonstrated is that something in the bills is detected as if it were an RFID. But it still is good to be aware that cash can set off anti-theft devices. Sorry for overselling the story; I was trying to be funny and failed.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 7:59 AM by Paul Bartlett
Surely pocket microwaves are a bad idea...

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 8:30 AM by MilesArcher
Don't some US bills have metal threads (or ink) in them? Wouldn't this account for the same behavior?

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 8:48 AM by John Brown
Paper money, in a capitalist society, is the most effective disease vector known to Western science. Microwaving is the only non-destructive way to sterilize paper money (try running some bills through an autoclave, and you'll see what I mean). Now, you can't sterilize your money without destroying it.

We know that the US government has engaged in bio-warfare-related experiments on uninformed and unsuspecting US citizens ever since 1948, and we know that the Bush administration profits immensely from "terrorism" directed at domestic targets.

Apply the principle of the least hypothesis to that set of facts, and you end up with a pretty clear picture of why this is being done and what we can expect to see in the future: Plagues, chaos, and a totalitarian takeover.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 9:34 AM by Larry Osterman
I'd actually suspect that the issue isn't RFID tags, but instead that there's something in the ink on that area of the bill that reacts with microwaves.

It's possible that there's a tracking device, but it's also possible that there's something else. The portrait on a bill is the most ink-intensive portion of the bill, so if there's something in the ink that reacts with microwaves, then it would tend to burn at the place with the most ink - the portrait.

But then again, it could be a vast conspiracy between the Microsoft and their minions in the U.S. Government to track your location by the money in your wallet.

# Explosive News: RFID's in cash

Friday, March 05, 2004 12:57 PM by Michael Teper

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 10:52 AM by Michael Carter
Yeah John Brown, and pretty soon we'll have "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together... mass hysteria!"

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 11:25 AM by John Brown
Mr. Carter, you laugh because the corporate media tell you to laugh -- but when W's plagues hit and you cough your entire digestive system out into your lap in one hideous convulsion, you'll be laughing in a different octave.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 11:56 AM by Tim Smith
Raymond,

The only reason I said what I said was because there are way too many silly people who believe this garbage.

You can even see it in this thread.

But the jokes on me. When the day comes, I will pay for my blind ignorance.

*BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*

(P.S. There are people who still think the earth is hollow and there are huge holes at the poles. The only reason we don't know about it is the "world government" (singular :) ) doesn't want us to know about it.)

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 4:12 PM by Nate Silva
Tin foil. Humanity's last defense against totalitarianism.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 4:20 PM by asdf
I wonder if microwaving my computer will disable microsoft passport.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Friday, March 05, 2004 4:25 PM by mendel
Those aren't all new 20s -- at least some are the previous series, per the oval around Jackson's head.

http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/images/currency/big_bill_front.gif

In any case, "is detected as if it were an RFID" doesn't make sense -- microwaves are reported to disable RFID, not catch them on fire.

The observation seems to be "I applied microwave energy to a stack of paper, and it burned", which is exactly what I would expect a stack of (cotton or other) paper to do. Fibrous cotton or wood has a pretty low flash point.

# re: Money can burn a hole in your pocket

Saturday, March 06, 2004 10:27 AM by tekumse
Duh! The tag was in the wallet.

# Explosive News: RFID's in cash

Sunday, March 07, 2004 4:33 PM by Michael Teper
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