Sniffing out the smugglers: The smell of dollars could catch criminals

For the first time, scientists have identified the unique smell of paper money, which they say could help border guards catch criminals trying to smuggle money across the border from Mexico to the US.

 

The billions of dollars currently smuggled across the border each year have been causing problems for border guards, who are often let down by current identification methods.

 

But a new technique, developed by Dr Joseph Stetter and his team at KWJ Engineering, could provide a solution.

 

"Money sniffing is an unknown art. No-one had ever tried to find these aromas," Stetter said at an American Chemical Society meeting. 

 

"We found that US currency emits a wide range of volatile organic compounds that make a 'fingerprint' we can identify in less than a minute."

 

In order to find the smell of money, they gathered a hundred used $1 notes from various US states and sealed them in a chamber before heating them up to 24 degrees Celsius and then 40 degrees Celsius. In each case, they collected the vapours and analysed them. 

 

Although they found a large amount of variability and contamination, they managed to  identify an odour common to all of them. This, according to the scientists, came from a mixture of chemicals including aldehydes, furans and organic acids.

 

However, according to the BBC the researchers are unlikely to reveal the exact source of the smell in any published scientific journal for security reasons.

 

The way in which they propose putting the discovery into action is with a handheld cash detector called the Bulk Currency Detection System. This would be passed over clothing or baggage, and if a large quantity of money was being hidden it would result in a high-intensity reading.

 

The technique was researched and developed in response to a challenge set by the US Department of Homeland Security to develop "a device that will search for and identify bulk quantities of currency – secreted on persons, in hand baggage and luggage, and/or in privately owned vehicles."