> Cash is also—I regret to say—disgusting. Not true! For a while I was manufacturing cash and did some research on the hygiene component. Surprisingly, I lea

> Cash is also—I regret to say—disgusting. Not true! For a while I was manufacturing cash and did some research on the hygiene component. Surprisingly, I learned tap to pay was the most hygienic iff one didn’t use a common terminal for tips or signing. Coins were the second most hygienic with a germ score of 168RLU . Cash third. Credit fourth, and dead last was shared payment terminals one physically touched (this includes tap to pay if one “answers a couple of questions.”) A separate study found smart watches were dirtier than terminals. [1] https://www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/news/what-is-the-least-hygienic-payment-method/ https://www.electronicpaymentsinternational.com/news/what-is... [2] https://www.self.inc/info/dirty-money/ https://www.self.inc/info/dirty-money/ [3] https://www.nmi.com/blog/how-contactless-payments-impact-global-health-and-the-environment/ https://www.nmi.com/blog/how-contactless-payments-impact-glo... And amusingly [4] https://nocash.ro/oxford-university-european-bank-notes-on-average-contain-over-26000-bacteria-2/ https://nocash.ro/oxford-university-european-bank-notes-on-a... Reports in this space are full of confirmation bias so take the RLU scores with a grain of salt. Likewise some cultures have cleaner methods of dealing with cash than others.