The Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation (BOI, 調查局) says that the bureau can help civilians to appraise and identify their New Taiwan dollar bills if these bills had been partially burned, but not bills that had been damaged by water or worms.
The BOI said that it can help people whose bills were "partially burned" by identifying and appraising the bills with special equipment. If the bills are found to be legal, the BOI will issue an official estimate of the total value of these burned bills to the bearer and the bearer can then trade this for the same amount at any branch of the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行).
However, the bureau says it cannot help people whose bills had been damaged by water or had been bitten by worms, because it does not have the right equipment and is not authorized to do so.
"As long as the bills are only partially burned, we can identify them," a senior officer at the Sixth Division of the BOI said. "However, if the bills are totally burned up, all we can do is to say `sorry' to the victims."
The bureau's Sixth Division is in charge of the appraisals and has been authorized by the Ministry of Finance (
The officer suggested that people with bills that had been damaged in other ways should seek help from local banks. "But, again, if these bills are seriously damaged, I'm afraid that the victims will still have to accept the fact that the money is lost forever."
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