Jul.09, 2010

THE washing machine cycle takes about 45 minutes – and George Washington comes out cleaner in Zimbabwe-style money laundering.

The reason is that in the economically embattled country, low-denomination US bank notes change hands so often, and are routinely carried in underwear and shoes through crime-ridden slums, that some become too smelly to handle.

So Zimbabweans have taken to popping their 1 bills into the washing machine to clean up the greenbacks.

Zimbabwe’s coalition government officially declared the US dollar legal tender last year to stem a world-record inflation.

While the US Federal Reserve says the average 1 bill circulates in the US for about 20 months before being destroyed – in Zimbabwe its life span is measured in many years.

Among Zimbabwe’s poor, 1, 2, 5 and 10 bills are the most sought after, and dirty 1 bills can remain in circulation at rural markets, bus parks and beer halls almost indefinitely, or at least until they finally disintegrate.

Zimbabweans say the US notes do best with gentle hand-washing in warm water. But at a laundry and dry cleaners in eastern Harare, a machine cycle does little harm either to the cotton-weave type of paper.

Locals say chemical “dry cleaning” is not recommended – it fades the green out of the famed greenback.