Taiwan forensic expert repairs shredded banknotes

A Taiwanese forensic expert has worked a full week - day and night - piecing together hundreds of banknotes, after a factory owner put them in a shredder.

Justice ministry official Liu Hui-fen, a handwriting expert, said repairing the notes had taken a lot of patience.

The factory owner, named only as Lin, said he accidentally dumped a plastic bag filled with notes into an industrial scrap machine last month.

The Central Bank confirmed the notes were acceptable and would be honoured.

Under Taiwanese law, people can claim replacement notes as long as at least 75% of the original is intact.

Painstaking work

For the past four years, Ms Liu has taken on responsibility for repairing gnarled banknotes on top of her usual job of handwriting expert.

So far, 247 such cases have been given to her, but she said this was the most difficult puzzle of the lot.

She was given 200 banknotes, each worth 1,000 Taiwan dollars (£21; $33), each shredded into tiny pieces.

She said she located the Chinese character "guo", or country, on each note, and then worked outwards.

"I was so happy whenever I was able to put a piece into its right place," she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Lin offered his thanks, saying: "I'm sorry the job brought her so much trouble."