Staff piecing together coin fragments
"You have so much money it's moldy." This common jest actually came true in real life. Not long ago, an elderly man from Jiékēng Xiāng (Boundary Pit Township) suffered a significant financial loss because the paper money he buried underground had become moldy and deteriorated.
Mr. Jīn is from Huáng'ǎotóu Village in Jiékēng Xiāng. Last Thursday, he brought a bag of broken paper money to the Shàngtáng branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, hoping to exchange it. Ye Qingsong, a staff member from the Planning and Finance Department responsible for handling exchanges, was at a loss when he saw a pile of moldy and fragmented banknotes. According to the RMB exchange regulations, only partially damaged banknotes (where at least 50% of the area remains) can be exchanged. However, the pile of banknotes in front of him were mostly rotten, shattered into pieces, with none intact. Some banknotes crumbled at a touch, making them very difficult to piece together. Moreover, when the banknotes were poured out of the bag, they left a layer of powder on the table.
Most of this money consisted of 50-yuan notes, with dates mainly from 1980. Mr. Jīn said that these banknotes were left by his father, who only told him on his deathbed that there was a sum of money buried under the old house. After digging up the soil and retrieving the money, Mr. Jīn found the banknotes had become moldy. These banknotes were wrapped in newspapers from 1980, indicating they had been buried underground for many years. Since Mr. Jīn’s father never told his son exactly how much money there was, trying to reconstruct the original amount from so many fragments presented an enormous challenge.
After hearing the story of the elder burying his money, the staff began selecting larger fragments from the table and started piecing them together, comparing each one repeatedly. In order to minimize the loss as much as possible, the staff spent over three hours piecing the fragments together. In the end, they managed to reconstruct 13,500 yuan worth of banknotes. Judging from the already reconstructed money and the remaining fragments on the table that could not be pieced together, it was estimated that the amount originally buried by Mr. Jīn’s father was close to 20,000 yuan.
In fact, Mr. Jīn’s father’s actions are not unique. Last year, an elderly man surnamed Yáng from Dōngshānxià Village in Shàngtáng Town placed 18,000 yuan in paper money near the gas canister in his kitchen, only for rats to use it to build nests, gnawing it into fragments. Not long ago, another elderly man from Huātán Xiāng stored his money in a hay stack on his loft, resulting in injury when he fell while trying to retrieve it.
In our rural areas, some older people live frugally and manage to save a bit of money which they believe is safest kept nearby. They like to hide their money in the most secret places in their homes, such as wall cavities, hay stacks, eaves, or even underground. As a result, incidents where money is eaten by rats, becomes moldy, or gets lost happen frequently.
Bank staff informed reporters that improper handling of paper money during circulation can easily lead to damage. Many people lack awareness about cherishing currency, often carelessly shoving paper money into their pockets or crumpling it up, unintentionally shortening its circulation lifespan. The Shàngtáng branch of the Bank of China exchanges tens of thousands of yuan in damaged currency every year, with burnt banknotes being the most common type of damaged currency. Bank staff remind everyone not to store large amounts of cash at home. Elderly people who find it inconvenient to go to the bank can entrust their children to handle transactions on their behalf, avoiding unnecessary losses.