Hundreds of euro bills in Germany have mysteriously disintegrated in the last several months, apparently due to exposure to sulfuric acid. Authorities in Berlin and the Bundesbank confirmed a report in the daily Bild that the state crime offices in the German capital and the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate have opened investigations after a number of bills began self-destructing.
The first case surfaced in June in Berlin when a 20-euro bill crumbled upon contact. Police first suspected a fluke but the number of "broken notes", as investigators have dubbed the bills, continued to rise in August. Bild, which splashed the headline "Acid attack on our money!" on its front page, said that chemists believed the bills may have been sprinkled with a sulfate salt that becomes sulfuric acid when it comes in contact with moisture, such as hand perspiration. The bills then gradually disintegrate.
The Bundesbank said that more than 1,000 bills were affected, mainly found in the north and the east of the country, and ruled out a printing defect. Serial numbers confirm the bills were produced by the Federal Printing Press. "To date we do not have any indication that a crime has been committed," a Berlin police spokesman said, adding that it was possible that an accident led to the contamination of the bills. Investigators had told Bild that they suspected that would-be extortionists were behind the case, aiming to prove they can destroy currency at will. |