Money doesn't have nails -- how can it be manicured?
July 21, 2010 4:51 AM Subscribe
I was watching The Wire season 1 and they kept talking about manicured money. I get the gist of it, but is there some more specific meaning it has? (I have watched only seasons 1 and 2 and have very successfully avoided any spoilers whatsoever, please don't discuss plotlines.)
Best answer: Laundering is in view, but in my experience with The Wire, when the "bad guys" talk about "manicuring money" they're talking about laundering both metaphorically and literally, i.e. the actual process of physically cleaning currency.
At one point later in the show (not too much of a spoiler, trust me!) a street character attempts to make a large payment to a mainstream character with a suitcase full of cash which had obviously come from the corners, only to be rebuffed for attempting to pay with "street money."
Paying with currency for anything which exceeds a couple of hundred bucks other than a bar or restaurant tab isn't really done anymore, and the odds that currency has a shady origin go up with the amount of it. But if it looks legitimate enough, the other party won't necessarily ask questions. If there isn't anything obviously wrong with the money other than the fact that there's lots of it, a prosecutor is going to have to show that they had some knowledge of where it came from, which can be difficult. But if you show up with a stack of money which has obviously seen hard use, it's going to be a lot harder for the other party to maintain a position that they had no reason to suspect the money was dirty if they're hauled up before a jury.
Given that drug and other questionably legitimate organizations tend to use large amounts of cash they they want to be able to use for legitimate goods and services, there's a strong interest in making sure that their currency will be accepted in the mainstream market.
posted by valkyryn at 5:32 AM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
At one point later in the show (not too much of a spoiler, trust me!) a street character attempts to make a large payment to a mainstream character with a suitcase full of cash which had obviously come from the corners, only to be rebuffed for attempting to pay with "street money."
Paying with currency for anything which exceeds a couple of hundred bucks other than a bar or restaurant tab isn't really done anymore, and the odds that currency has a shady origin go up with the amount of it. But if it looks legitimate enough, the other party won't necessarily ask questions. If there isn't anything obviously wrong with the money other than the fact that there's lots of it, a prosecutor is going to have to show that they had some knowledge of where it came from, which can be difficult. But if you show up with a stack of money which has obviously seen hard use, it's going to be a lot harder for the other party to maintain a position that they had no reason to suspect the money was dirty if they're hauled up before a jury.
Given that drug and other questionably legitimate organizations tend to use large amounts of cash they they want to be able to use for legitimate goods and services, there's a strong interest in making sure that their currency will be accepted in the mainstream market.
posted by valkyryn at 5:32 AM on July 21, 2010 [1 favorite]
Basically what eb98jdb and valkryn said. It's always going to look suspicious to some people if you make a large purchase with lots of cash. But if that cash looks crisp and new, like it just came from the bank, it's going to cause less suspicion. (Granted, it's just an easier way to overlook what is usually pretty obvious, but that's a conversation for another thread.)
Even at the street level, drug dealers in urban areas prefer to get the "cleanest" $20 you have.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:14 AM on July 21, 2010
Even at the street level, drug dealers in urban areas prefer to get the "cleanest" $20 you have.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:14 AM on July 21, 2010
Response by poster: I would not have guessed that it was literally laundered money, though it makes sense. Thank you.
posted by jeather at 7:48 AM on July 21, 2010
posted by jeather at 7:48 AM on July 21, 2010
I want to be careful not to discuss plotlines or provide spoilers, but I got the impression that there was a bit of a con going on with some of the services being provided to "manicure" the money, but it's been a long time since I watched it.
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 3:37 PM on July 21, 2010
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 3:37 PM on July 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by eb98jdb at 5:15 AM on July 21, 2010