Paper Money Is Made of Cotton?!
Our visit to the Slovak National Bank was quite insightful. MYP2 and MYP3 had a chance to learn a lot about the Euro currency.
We did not know that the material used for production was actually cotton. It is processed in a similar way as paper, but cotton “paper” is more durable than the regular one. We have learned that 500 Euro banknote is not being printed anymore, because it was used for illegal purposes. It is much easier to give someone 1 million Euros in 500 bills in a suitcase. It only weights 2.3 kg. Whereas € 1 million in 5 Euro banknotes would be 136.4 kg. So if you want to rob a bank, make sure you ask for the higher banknotes.
The students were able to learn how to distinguish fake and original notes. There are watermarks, holograms, see-through number, raised print etc. The metallic strips on the side of a banknote are actually made of metal and are a little magnetic, this helps the counting machines you see in banks or on TV.
At the end of the presentation we were able to mint our own souvenir coins. The same way they used to do it in one of the oldest companies in the world – The National Mint Kremnica. This enterprise has been continously in operation for almost 700 years.
