
How Tight Jeans Almost Ruined America's Money - kitcar
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/12/16/how-tight-jeans-almost-ruined-americas-money/
======
mikeash
Interesting article, but idiotic title. Tight jeans "almost ruined" money
because instead of harvesting jeans for used cotton, they had to go buy new
cotton. Since new cotton is neither expensive nor difficult to obtain, it's
hardly "almost ruined".

~~~
mynegation
I actually liked the title, because my initial guess was that no one wanted to
pull banknotes from the pockets and everyone switched in droves to plastic. It
turned out to be wrong but it was interesting trivia nevertheless.

------
nate_meurer
For those who don't want to RTFA, the upshot is that the presence of spandex
makes the denim waste stream unsuitable for paper-making.

Esquire has a much better story about this:

[http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-
bill...](http://www.esquire.com/features/benjamin-hundred-dollar-bill-0913)

------
kamakazizuru
Appropriate title "How A Company that makes paper, changed its raw materials".

------
forgottenpass
_" It's a sign of the times," Rudd said._

It's a sign that the States doesn't keep up with the times. We should have
ditched Crane's cloth for polymer banknotes ages ago.

In general our currency reflects a stuffy and uptight attitude. Canada seems
like a guy that says "fuck it, we're doing birds for 15 years"[0] or "How
about Hockey, eh?"[1]. They've put the CanadaArm on the $10 [2], we've been to
the fucking moon and only have the Eisenhower dollar where there is some moon
[3], but not without that damn eagle, again. Instead we get "in god we trust,"
pictures of buildings and the only hint of changing anything more than
shuffling the layout is occasional rumblings to put St. Reagan on a bill.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Canadian_dolla...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Canadian_dollar#1986_Birds_of_Canada_Series)
[1]
[http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/images/Journey/2002_005b.jpg](http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/images/Journey/2002_005b.jpg)
[2]
[http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8542/8694157272_a1323d9017_o.j...](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8542/8694157272_a1323d9017_o.jpg)
[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1974S_Eisenhower_Reverse.j...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1974S_Eisenhower_Reverse.jpg)

~~~
nate_meurer
No, the choice to use natural fibers is a deliberate defense against
counterfeiters. Forgive me for pasting such a large portion of the Esquire
article cited in another comment:

"In the late 1980s, a new counterfeit hundred, the most perfect counterfeit
yet made, began appearing in circulation. It looked identical to the real
thing, betrayed visually, at least, under only the most rigorous forensic
testing. (Some minor flaws were visible after enormous copies of the bills
were made, but these were probably purposeful. Its makers didn't want to be
suckered by their own handiwork.) Although the counterfeit came to America
mostly on boats from gangs in China, it was eventually traced to North Korea,
where it was believed to have been manufactured by the North Korean government
on its own presses. Since then, new generations of the same counterfeit have
appeared, including a big-head version, mimicking the redesigned hundred that
entered circulation in 1996. This family of bogus notes has been given its own
title, one that befits its almost mythical stature: the North Korean
supernote.

Some stories about the supernote sound more like legend than fact — like its
being laundered by a bank in Macao called the Banco Delta Asia, or several
thousand of them somehow appearing overnight in Lima, threatening to tip over
the entire Peruvian economy. But there remains one truth in the supernote's
history that has never been forgotten: It was first detected at the Central
Bank of the Philippines by a teller, given pause only by the same nebulous
flaw that betrays the majority of counterfeits. It just didn't feel right."

------
Theodores
The dollar went from gold to denim off-cuts. Makes you think what a dollar is
worth.

Edit: No discourse on Bretton Woods, quantitative easing etc. intended!

Sometimes it can be fun and helpful to look at things for what they are rather
than what they represent. For instance, 'That sounds like a lot of recycled
denim!' is a more light hearted way of saying 'you're ripping me off!'

~~~
forgottenpass
I know, right? Denim isn't even shiny. How can a society collectively agree on
assigning value to something to use as currency and not use shiny things we
dug up!

~~~
ch4s3
I think you summed up my statement better than I did.

------
blueblob
Not what I expected. I expected health issues with people's circulation being
cut off.

[http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/skinny-jeans-cause-nerve-damage-
doc...](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/skinny-jeans-cause-nerve-damage-doctors-
warn-419904)

~~~
parasight
I expected jeans too tight to carry a wallet.

------
jrockway
Flagging this for the ridiculous title.

