Photo courtesy of the Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice (MJIB)

Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) The Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice (MJIB) said Thursday that it helped a man identify 899 water and insect-damaged NT$1,000 (US$32.5) banknotes.

According an MJIB press statement released Thursday, a man -- identified only by his surname of Huang -- initially sought help from a Bank of Taiwan in Kaohsiung which helped him contact the bureau for help, 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 MJIB Forensic Science Department spent 14 days piecing together the damaged notes based on their serial numbers and anti-counterfeit features, eventually identifying 899 individual notes, almost 90 percent of the original amount.

The investigation bureau said Bank of Taiwan will decide how much the man will be reimbursed.

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 MJIB, which provided the service free of charge, is Taiwan's only institution with ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, certified by Taiwan Accreditation Foundation, an international standard for testing and calibration of questioned documents.

(By Hsiao Po-wen and Chi Jo-yao)
Enditem/AW