After the recent humid weather, we noticed that some ‘paper’ money we had stashed in a drawer for a ‘rainy day’ had gone mouldy and was stinking. So I washed it in light bleach water, warmed up the oven, draped the notes over a wire frame, turned off the oven and placed the cash inside. An hour later, the bits of the notes that had been touching the wire had shrunk, crinkled and melted... it isn’t paper money at all! Our notes are made of plastic with a very low heat tolerance! They were unusable, although you could easily read the numbers and the colours were fine, and there was no smell or mould...
But the bank refused to accept them – they were too small and shrivelled. Finally I convinced them to send the notes to the Reserve Bank [They print the money] to see if they would reimburse me...
Really! There ought to be a warning... these things are plastic! Do not overheat.