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Posted Yesterday 10:23 pm
It's not hard to find people on the Internet who will sell you anything - including some kind of universal solvent kit that claims to remove ink from blackened banknotes.
The main reason that banknotes would be covered in ink is if they had been affected by an anti-theft dye pack, of the kind that banks put into bundles of notes delivered to bank robbers, to render the banknotes useless once the criminals are no longer in a position to threaten bank staff or the public.
Exactly how well such ink-removing solvents might work would be up for debate. From a chemistry point of view, I think it would be very, very difficult to obtain a solvent mixture that would dissolve the incriminating dye but leave the original banknote inks intact. I would assume that the dyes used in dye packs are deliberately designed to not be removed that easily by simple solvents.
Their inclusion of an "activation powder" clearly implies some kind of enzymatic activity is being used, rather than straight solvent chemistry. The problem is, enzymes are very, very specific and targeted - meaning that an enzyme that might work great against a certain specific ink type won't work against others. I assume the dye-pack makers use all kinds of different inks, to avoid criminals inventing or discovering a simple anti-ink solution. An enzyme mixture so generic as to work with any type of dye, would almost certainly work against at least some of the banknote inks as well.
It is, of course, illegal to even attempt to clean banknotes that have been affected by a dye pack. Such notes would be classified as stolen property, and attempting to remove the ink would be considered attempting to tamper with or destroy evidence of criminal activity, as well as (quite literal) money laundering. As such, I'm also pretty sure that the promotion or advertising the sale of such chemical agents is also technically illegal in the United States; certainly importing such chemicals into the United States from an overseas sales venue would be illegal.
TLDR: it probably won't work, and probably would be illegal to try.
The main reason that banknotes would be covered in ink is if they had been affected by an anti-theft dye pack, of the kind that banks put into bundles of notes delivered to bank robbers, to render the banknotes useless once the criminals are no longer in a position to threaten bank staff or the public.
Exactly how well such ink-removing solvents might work would be up for debate. From a chemistry point of view, I think it would be very, very difficult to obtain a solvent mixture that would dissolve the incriminating dye but leave the original banknote inks intact. I would assume that the dyes used in dye packs are deliberately designed to not be removed that easily by simple solvents.
Their inclusion of an "activation powder" clearly implies some kind of enzymatic activity is being used, rather than straight solvent chemistry. The problem is, enzymes are very, very specific and targeted - meaning that an enzyme that might work great against a certain specific ink type won't work against others. I assume the dye-pack makers use all kinds of different inks, to avoid criminals inventing or discovering a simple anti-ink solution. An enzyme mixture so generic as to work with any type of dye, would almost certainly work against at least some of the banknote inks as well.
It is, of course, illegal to even attempt to clean banknotes that have been affected by a dye pack. Such notes would be classified as stolen property, and attempting to remove the ink would be considered attempting to tamper with or destroy evidence of criminal activity, as well as (quite literal) money laundering. As such, I'm also pretty sure that the promotion or advertising the sale of such chemical agents is also technically illegal in the United States; certainly importing such chemicals into the United States from an overseas sales venue would be illegal.
TLDR: it probably won't work, and probably would be illegal to try.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
