Those of you who received an Afghanistan bank note…. Handle it responsibly!

After I got the Afghanistan bank notes I cut what I needed out of the stack then mailed out notes to chipper friends and was left with still a nice handful. My daughter and her friends were fascinated with them, so I allowed her to take some to her school for schoolmates and her teacher. I thought her classmates might like having such an unusual banknote. They were quite a hit. Tuesday one of the kids gave the note to a brother to took it to his high school and showed it around on Wednesday. It caused a panic. The fire marshal (HazMat) was called to bag the note and send it to Houston to a laboratory for Anthrax testing. They traced the note to the sibling, then to my daughter, then me. They called and spoke to my wife who knew nothing about the note’s origin. When I arrived home my wife told me to sit down, and I wouldn’t believe what she was about to tell me! She was right! I contacted the fire marshal and explained the whole situation, and that yes these were in fact from Afghanistan and no there was no reason to believe they were contaminated, the word anthrax had nevwe been used or eluded to, I have been collecting for 40 years, I knew the dealer that I went in with to buy these notes for as long as I had been collecting and he was reputable…etc. Called both schools to explain. Once I felt like the hysteria was in check and logic prevailed, I forgot about it. Until the next morning when I saw it on the local news that Afghanistan currency had somehow turned up at one of the local schools and was being sent to a laboratory for testing. I blew up! Someone was trying to create some news! My wife watched the news later, but no mention of it. I figured it was dead. Today’s newspaper reports Southeast Texas anthrax scares have been false alarms and sites several incidents, my banknote was part of the front page story. At least it has died down to a one line notation.

Do we need to get a grip? Or is the media hurting for news again?

The kicker.... the kid who lost his note because it was sent for testing wants another one!!! GET REAL!