Not a few of the 3,450 people who applied to exchange damaged banknotes this year are beneficiaries of windfalls, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday. It said one person in Youngcheon, North Gyeongsang Province exchanged damaged bills worth W18 million (about US$18,000) their father had buried in the backyard after selling land. Another man in Incheon exchanged W7 million his mother had hidden under the floorboards, while yet another swapped W9 million his late father had tucked away in a closet.

The central bank said Tuesday W485 million of burnt or tainted banknotes were exchanged for crisp new bills in the first half of the year.

Well-preserved ashes were the most frequent cases, with some 1,301 people exchanging burnt bills worth W224 million. The bank said a man identified by his surname Kang mistook W4 million he made from selling a cow for trash and incinerated the bills before realizing his error - luckily before the banknotes became unidentifiable.

In other cases, 754 people damaged bills by keeping them under the floor or in a microwave oven. If less than 25 percent of a banknote is damaged, the BOK repays the full value. If less than 60 percent is damaged, it pays half.

(englishnews@chosun.com )