The Ops Stop provides your organization with a one-stop shop full of helpful operational resources offered by the Federal Reserve Banks. For this installment of the series, we are featuring how to deposit contaminated currency with the Federal Reserve Banks.

If your day-to-day responsibilities have you handling cash, then you will likely come across contaminated currency deposited with your institution. This currency may have been damaged by or exposed to an unwanted contaminant or impurity that poses a health hazard or safety risk. Genuine currency that has been contaminated can still be deposited with the Federal Reserve Banks, but you must follow very specific procedures. The video below provides depository institutions with an overview of how to package contaminated currency before depositing it.

Additional resources

The following resources are available to help answer your questions about depositing currency and coin:

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We encourage you to share these procedures with others in your institution and keep them handy, especially if your area experiences an event that might drive higher contaminated deposits, like a hurricane or flood.