Chewed, Bleached or Cooked--Old Lady Pays Full Face Value

LONDON — British bank notes have been chewed by camels and ferrets, cooked in microwave ovens or bleached by washing machines, but the Bank of England still pays out on them.

In a rare display of openness, the bank, known as the Old Lady by financiers, gave details today in the quarterly bulletin of its unit entrusted with honoring badly damaged bank notes, saying it paid out about $1.3 million a year.

“The propensity of the public to do strange things to bank notes remains undiminished,” it said in the solemn language of bank bulletins that usually deal with the weightier subject of Britain’s economy.

The unit, staffed by six women known as “the Mutilated Ladies,” process about 27,000 claims each year, some of them so strange they seem unlikely to have been deliberate, said the bulletin.

The bank prides itself on using extensive scientific analysis and on paying back the notes’ full value if it reimburses customers for them. Some countries repay only in proportion to the surface area of the mangled note submitted, the bank said.