The Crumbling Euro

It looks like the euro currency, in Germany at least, crumbling.

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According to EU Business, euro bills in Germany are mysteriously disintegrating, leaving the authorities baffled. This first surfaced in June in Berlin when a 20-euro bill crumbled on contact and now about 1,000 have been affected. The German daily Bild, however, has a theory. It has reported that bills may have been sprinkled with a sulphate salt that becomes sulphuric acid when it comes in contact with moisture, such as hand perspiration. The bills then gradually disintegrate. Investigators have told Bild that they suspected would-be extortionists could be behind the case, aiming to prove they can destroy currency at will.

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The European Central Bank, however, has a more prosaic explanation. It believes it might be possible the bills were stolen during a cash shipment and that the hijackers had used chemicals to remove anti-theft dye.

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One would like to think this was yet another sign of the impending collapse of the European Union, a metaphor for the innate corruption of the political construct that the currency represents, a stark metaphysical representation of its decay and final disintegration…

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But then, it could just be sweaty fingers on contaminated notes!