EHIME (TR) – The Bank of Japan will convert a large quantity of damaged bills that arrived at a government office with a note saying that the money was to provide “help” for new currency, the Ehime Prefectural Government announced on Thursday reports Fuji News Network (Aug. 29).
On January 29, a cardboard box addressed to the prefectural governor arrived at the office. The 10,000-yen notes, which were waterlogged and caked in mold, arrived packed in stacks inside the box. A letter also found within the box said that the sender wanted to “offer help in some way.”
After an examination, the Bank of Japan said it will exchange the bills for a total of 166 million yen. The bank will return face value for 10,619 of the bills that were found to be at least 67-percent whole.
Meanwhile, half value (5,000 yen) will be given for 84 bills that were deemed to be between 40- and 67-percent whole. Another 19 bills were found to have no value since very little of them remained.
Since the bills sent did not contain a hologram to prevent counterfeiting, the government suspected that they were printed before 2004. The name and address of the sender were later revealed to not be real, the government said previously.
“I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the good will extended by the donor,” said prefectural governor Tokihiro Nakamura.
The money will be used as a part of recovery efforts for natural disasters and child rearing, the government said.
