The Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau on Thursday said that it had helped a man identify 899 water and insect-damaged NT$1,000 (US$32.53) banknotes.
The man, surnamed Huang (黃), initially sought help from a Bank of Taiwan branch in Kaohsiung, after finding that NT$1 million in NT$1,000 banknotes he kept in a wardrobe had been severely damaged by moisture and insects.
The bank helped him contact the bureau for assistance.
Photo courtesy of the Investigation Bureau
The bureau’s Forensic Science Department spent 14 days piecing together the damaged notes based on their serial numbers and anti-counterfeit features, eventually identifying 899 banknotes, almost 90 percent of the original amount.
The Bank of Taiwan will decide how much the man is to be reimbursed, the bureau said.
Guidelines stipulate that a note will be redeemed for its full value if it is 75 percent of its original size or more.
Notes that are 50 to 75 percent of their original size are redeemed at half their face value.
The bureau, which provided the service free of charge, is the nation’s only institution with ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, an international standard for testing and calibration of questioned documents, and is certified by the Taiwan Accreditation Foundation.
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