Is it true that banknotes do not pose a risk of infection for the public?
According to Cash Essentials, Bundesbank executive board member Johannes Beermann certainly thinks so and has indicated that the risk of picking up coronavirus from handling cash is extremely minimal. “Banknotes and coins do not pose a particular risk of infection for the public,” he said.
And he is right.
Banknotes do not seem to play a major part in what epidemiologists call ‘the chain of transmission’. If they did, incidence of C-19 infection would be much higher. And the way they are made, with their polymer substrates, anti-microbial inks and surfactant varnishes, means that they don’t lend themselves to the transmission of pathogens.