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Money

Australian Cash Isn't Vegan

Turns out even the new banknotes contain animal fat.
Gavin Butler
Melbourne, AU
Australian banknotes split with an image of raw pork
Image via Shutterstock (L) and Shutterstock (R)

Vegans have it rough. They can’t eat ham, or cheese, or avocados. They can’t use hotel room soap or look cool in leather jackets. And you know what else they can’t use? Money. Money contains animal byproducts, and is thus—strictly speaking—non-vegan.

Since the mid-90s, Australian banknotes have contained a substance known as tallow: a rendered form of animal fat that’s typically derived from beef or mutton. Tallow is used as a “slip agent” in plastic banknotes in a number of countries—including Canada, Malaysia, and Singapore—in order to minimise friction and static. Australian notes contain “miniscule” amounts of the stuff, according to SBS, while News.com.au reports that our money's tallow content is about one percent. And the Reserve Bank of Australia has no plans of changing that.

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The new Australian banknotes, which are already in the process of being rolled out around the country, will be made from the same materials and therefore still contain small amounts of animal by-product. The fat assists in the manufacturing process, apparently, and is similar to that which you might find in a range of commercially-available products such as soap, candles, and moisturisers. It also makes hard currency somewhat problematic, according to some of the more hardcore vegans around the world.

In 2016, a petition was launched in the UK to force the Bank of England to cease the use of animal fats in their notes, with critics claiming it was “unacceptable to millions of vegans, vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others”, The Guardian reports. Activists implored the Bank to switch to palm oil alternatives instead. The Bank refused.

“We recognise the concerns raised about the discovery of traces of tallow used in the production of our polymer £5 notes,” they stated on their website. “We were not aware of the presence of animal-derived products when we signed the contract with our supplier for the £5 and £10 banknote polymer. When we discovered the presence of these products, our first step was to alert the public. Subsequently, we have been taking the concerns raised by members of the public with the utmost seriousness.”

The Bank of England went on to declare that “the current polymer £5 note would remain in circulation and the new £10 note, due to be issued in September 2017, would be printed on the same polymer material.”

The Reserve Bank of Australia refused to make an official comment.