--- title: Money Is Covered in Bacteria According to New NYU Study description: Dolla dolla bills, y'all canonical: https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-24T12:30:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:03.902Z og:title: This Is How Many Germs Are on Your Dollar Bills og:description: Dolla dolla bills, y'all og:url: https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b326576dc54399f/69868c391eebf70dab3708fb/88621374.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4799 og:image:height: 2699 og:image:alt: 88621374 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How Many Germs Are on Your Dollar Bills twitter:description: Dolla dolla bills, y'all twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b326576dc54399f/69868c391eebf70dab3708fb/88621374.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Science Confirms Dollar Bills Are Covered in a Bajillion Gross Germs > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=65d91791-f9b3-44f7-9ca3-3c549d8902dc&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Apr 24, 2014 12:30 PM UTC  Close up of 20 dollar bills Close up of 20 dollar bills Adam Gault—Getty Images/OJO Images RF by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Apr 24, 2014 12:30 PM UTC [Science is pretty cool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil%5FdeGrasse%5FTyson), and it gets even cooler when it’s confirming things we already know through intuition or anecdote. This time, science confirms what my mom (and probably your mom, too) taught me about money: “Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been!” A recent study conducted by New York University’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology investigated the bacterial content of dollar bills from a Manhattan bank as part of a larger pilot program to identify health and bacterial trends in New York City. What the researchers found isn’t really that surprising, considering all the places that money goes. “We are finding viable bacteria that can be taken from paper currency,” Dr. Jane Carlton—lead investigator of the study and Director of Genomic Sequencing at NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology—[told ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/bacteria-live-money/story?id=23413718). “That means that money could function as a form of transmission.” Which is pretty gross, to say the least. The team conducting the study saw microbes from diverse places in the body, from normal skin fauna (obviously) to bacteria usually found in the inside of the vagina (not so obviously). They also found that bills collected during different seasons had different microbial communities, suggesting that money could play a role in the spread of community-acquired pneumonia; more seriously, the scientists found microbes presenting antibiotic-resistant genes, like those found in MRSA. Dr. Carlton, though, maintains that there’s no reason to overreact—microbes are literally everywhere. “We did find certain microbes that we might be a little concerned about, but that doesn’t mean that people should be unduly concerned.” So keep those bills out of your mouth and you’ll (probably) be fine. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/"},"headline":"Science Confirms Dollar Bills Are Covered in a Bajillion Gross Germs","datePublished":"2014-04-24T12:30:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:03.902Z","description":"Dolla dolla bills, y'all","url":"https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Money","Science topic","Bacteria"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b326576dc54399f/69868c391eebf70dab3708fb/88621374.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b326576dc54399f/69868c391eebf70dab3708fb/88621374.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"88621374","caption":"88621374","creditText":"Adam Gault—Getty Images/OJO Images RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/74409/science-confirms-dollar-bills-are-covered-in-a-bajillion-gross-germs/","name":"Science Confirms Dollar Bills Are Covered in a Bajillion Gross Germs"}}]}] ```