4/7/19 - Money Can Burn a Hole In Your Pocket - An Idiomatic Expression That Appears To Be Literally True.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Surprise Discovery

Could this be the actual origin of the old idiom?

My wife was going through some old clothes that had been in a storage box in the garage when she discovered this surprising sight.

It looks like money can actually burn a hole in your pocket!  I've heard that expression many times but never imagined it could be literally true.

I dig up a lot of corroded coins that have been exposed to salt water.  I think this penny was corroded to some extent before being placed into the pocket, and I suspect the mineral acids interacted with the fibers.  Florida's hot humid environment might have increased the reaction.

This is NOT a corroded coin that was simply falling out of a hole in the pocket..  When I first touched the coin, it was firmly attached to the fibers.  You can see in the photo that the cotton immediately around the hole is discolored as well.

I pulled the coin out just a touch, at first, so I could see what it was, but the photo looks very much like what I saw when my wife first held up the pants to show me what she found. 

The next photo shows what was holding the coin to the inside of the pocket..

Fibers From Pants Pocket Embedded In Corrosion on Penny.

You can see how the cotton fibers were embedded in the corrosion from the chemical reaction, so even if the coin was corroded before being placed in the pockrt, it evidently continued to corrode while in the pocket.

And below is a closer view of the two holes - the larger hole in the outer layer of the pocket, and a smaller hole in the inside layer of the pocket.

Hole in Pocket As Observed After the Penny Was Removed.

You can also see some corrosion still attached to the inside layer of the pocket.  That is where the fibers were attached to the coin.

It looks like the chemical reaction affected the blue dye as well as dissolving the cotton fibers.

When I first saw what was happening, I thought the pants were probably made of synthetic fibers, but the label says it is 100% cotton.

Perhaps a chemist could better explain the chemical reaction.

It does seem to be true that money can burn a hole in your pocket.

Treasureguide@comcast.net