The coed, identified only as Miss Huang, was not arrested. She claimed she was innocent.

All 350 banknotes she possessed were no longer valid for use after July 1, 2002 and she said her mother had "quite a number of them" exchanged for NT$50 coins at a Bank of Taiwan branch office in Changhua only a couple of years ago.

Miss Huang complained she tried to exchange her bills at the same branch bank on Thursday when police were called to investigate her.

She said her crane shovel operator father found the banknotes at his work site 15 years ago. He did not report the finding and kept the money.

Some of the bills were eroded over the years, but most were clearly passable, though a little too old.

"My mother took quite a number of them to the bank only a few years ago to have them exchanged for new coins," Miss Huang said. "So I thought it's okay to change NT$17,500 worth of them to pay for my tuition and fees," she protested.

Huang is ready to sign up for a master's course at a nearby university.

A bank cashier refused to accept the notes when she produced them at his counter. He sent for police.

Investigators took it for granted that the cashier could tell bogus and real banknotes apart. They released the girl but referred her for prosecution on charges of using bogus money.

No arraignment before a prosecutor took place.