The Bank of Thailand has asked the public to not fold any banknotes into flowers beginning from this Valentine’s celebration and the years after.
Every year, banknotes are often folded into flowers and other creations including hearts. Although it is very exciting to receive a bouquet made of money, it damages the bank notes and can cause issues when using the bank notes.
The Bank of Thailand posted on their Facebook page on the 7th of this month about the topic, one week exactly before Valentines 2019.
The Bank stated “Banknotes that have been written on, stamped on, and folded, causes the banknotes to age faster than they should.
We ask you to please do not do this for this Valentines day, there are other ways to make your loved ones happy from other forms of payment.”
Folding, writing on, and stamping bank notes are not illegal, but they cause the banknotes to be damaged and age much faster than if they were to be used normally.
One other main reason to avoid doing this is that damaged banknotes are much harder to distinguish from fake banknotes that is a recurring issue in the market.
If a banknote is too damaged to be used as currency, it must be destroyed and therefore is creating unnecessary costs to replace it with a new banknote.
The Bank of Thailand has reported that folding, writing on, and stamping on banknotes are a form of damaging the banknotes as they become marked and is no longer in perfect condition.
Banknotes that are damaged or have aged to a point of the banknote being too fragile or dirty will need to be destroyed and replaced in the monetary system with a new banknote.
