question for the minters & submariners

[Verdandi]

Okay, this is weird. My coworkers and I were engaged in the critical library task of gathering everyone's lunch orders. I found someone with change for a ten, and was given two fives. They being fresh, crisp, new fives deserving of some extra sensory savoring, I smelled them. They smell like...submarines. Not sub sandwiches, but the submerged aquatic transport vessels. Not that I am intimately familiar with submarines, but I have taken tours on a few here and there in places where they have them retired from duty and open for tourism. And my new five dollar bills (well, bill, now that I've paid for lunch) smell exactly like the air in a submarine. The similarity is strong enough that it hit me immediately. My coworkers agree, so it isn't just my memory playing random tricks on me.

Can anyone even begin to explain why new money and old submarines would smell the same? Or is it just one of those things...

[Brodybeard]

I happen to work at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, DC (not the Mint, where they make the pocket change).

US currency does have a distinctive scent. People laugh because I smell a note first when asked to determine whether it is counterfeit or not.

The two main black and green inks (there are nine different inks used on the denominations higher than the $2 note) are water-based heat-set intaglio inks. You're smelling a combination of the volatile ink ingredients (called the vehicle, since it "carries" the color pigments to the paper) and the animal glue currency paper sizing agent.

I never heard the smell compared to the interior of a submarine. Of course, I've never been on a submarine before. I always figured old submarines would smell like musty locker rooms.

[Verdandi]

Huh, didn't know that the Mint is only for coins and not paper money. Interesting. So is there a term for making paper notes, like "minting" coins?

So I'm smelling ink and glue...have to say that makes sense hehe. So what on earth would there be in a submarine that's made of the same stuff and around in sufficient quantity? I don't really remember if there was a lot of leather. The retired submarines I've seen were at least 30-40 years old, I think, so I suppose it's possible for seats and padding. But then my very vague understanding of animal glues is that they're based off of hooves and stuff, not pelts. Don't know if that makes a difference. (Tailoring never was my best skill. ) And would that be enough to scent the whole sub after so many years? Dang it I've got friends and family in the Marines, Air Force, and Army, but no Navy.

I suppose it could be a coincidence...but my nose keeps insisting that the smells are almost identical.

[Lothay]

Disclaimer: NOT a submariner. But I used to share an apartement with one, so I've heard a lot. And researched so I could nail the BS from the real ones.

I think the answer is; heat, oil, metal.

Papper money is also subjected to heat and oil from the metal presses/cutting machines. Submaries are hot, oily, metalic places. Both will tend to permeate the space around them with those scents.

~Lothay

[Morani]

The smell of an animal glue is not too unlike the smell of old sweat, warm skin, and wet hair. If it's hot, it can hit you like the proverbial "locker room" but otherwise, its more like a locker room that is well used but kept relatively clean and currently vacant. (I know, weird analogy but it works. It's also what struck me the one time I was near someone making glue the "old-fashioned" way.) As for the inks, just pulling a TOTAL guess out here; but maybe the cloth dies, inks for the paper, and the oils used to keep things lubricated have a similar base.

[Moonlilly]

The "smell" in a submarine comes from a chemical put in the air to remove CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), called amine. The smell gets into EVERYTHING so thats why it lingers in the old boats that are OOC.
Here is an article from CNN from when they visited a sub read the last paragraph and it'll mention amine.

[Silound]

Ungh, hate that smell myself. Worst is in a boat that's had to run her diesels for a while...**** fuel oil penetrates everything taht it gets on, good luck getting the smell of that out.

Silound

[Brodybeard]

Huh, didn't know that the Mint is only for coins and not paper money. Interesting. So is there a term for making paper notes, like "minting" coins?

Ah... "printing"? We're printers. US currency is printed by a combination of intaglio and letterpress (the serial numbers) printing. The next generation currency coming out this fall will also incorporate offset lithographic printing.

[Verdandi]

Cool! I'm sifting through Google results and finding that amines have a reputation for being smelly, particularly with odors like cat urine or fish. The smell I'm remembering and finding in the money isn't particularly unpleasant, but then again I'm not inhaling it constantly for days or weeks on end. It looks like the particular flavor used in submarines is monoethanolamine, or MEA. It's also sometimes used in cleaning up chemical weapons. (Had to check out that link, since at first it looked like it was saying MEA *is* a nerve agent hehe.) Could that same amine be involved in making paper money? I ran a search at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and didn't find anything for monoethanolamine or MEA. And I was puzzled that a department of the federal government would be at a .com address, but it looks like the right place. *shrugs*

Interesting!

Edit: Ooh just saw your reply, Brody. Okay okay, so "printing" is pretty obvious hehe. Didn't know if it had its own unique word like "minting". Do amines ring any bells with you?