A retired soldier in Hualien who has been collecting receipts with particular uniform invoice numbers for more than 11 years has completed a set that includes 1,000 with sequential ending digits, as well as ones with special background images.
Chen Tzu-tsun (陳自尊) said his inspiration for gathering the invoices stemmed from finding a lot of invoices that ended in 007.
“I like the James Bond films, especially the ones with Sean Connery,” Chen said.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
At first he only planned to collect invoices to complete a set where the digits ended from 1 to 10, but he said this collection was too small, so he expanded it to include ending digits ranging from 1 to 100.
Chen said his interest in the collection grew and before he knew it, he had a set with ending digits up to 1,000.
Chen said his most prized receipt was one that had eight 7s, which he had found after making a purchase at a convenience store near his house and getting an invoice with the number 77773000.
Chen said he made purchases at the store for about 20 days trying to get an invoice with all the digits having the same number.
“When I saw I was very close to the number, I went into the store, bought seven items and asked the cashier to print a separate receipt for each of them,” Chen said.
By coincidence, the all-7s receipt was obtained on the 77th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Chen said.
Since finding one with all 7s, Chen has added two more that have all eight digits the same, for zeros and eights.
Chen said he also collects invoices that have particular background images.
Very few people notice that the invoices have background images, Chen said, adding that these invoices were most often issued by theme parks and department stores.
He has a collection of receipts featuring images of the 12 Chinese signs of the zodiac.
Chen said the hardest one to find was that of the serpent, and he had to visit Aboriginal cultural displays before he found one.
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