A bundle of decaying ¥10,000 bills delivered anonymously to the Ehime Prefectural Government in January is genuine and the amount totaled ¥106.61 million, Gov. Tokihiro Nakamura revealed Thursday.
He made the announcement based on the results of an appraisal by the Bank of Japan, where the money had been sent for authentication.
"I would like to express my gratitude for the act of goodwill," Nakamura said, adding he will add the donation to the budget for emergency preparedness measures and programs to assist young families with child-rearing.
According to the prefectural government, the money was stuffed into a cardboard box addressed to the governor and sent to the governor's office on Jan. 29. The bills were heavily discolored and stuck together.
The BOJ staff who conducted the appraisal from March through July needed to use tweezers to separate one banknote from another to confirm their value.
In the valuation process, the clerks confirmed the package contained 10,619 banknotes with two-thirds or more of the original bill remaining and 84 bills with between two-fifths and two-thirds of the original notes left intact, and thus worth half of the original value.
The bank could not confirm the value of the remaining 19 notes.
A handwritten letter attached to the package said the sender's name and address were fake and asked the prefectural government not to try to identify the sender.
"I hope this can be of help," the sender wrote in the letter.
