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- "Russians are believed to keep between
$30 billion and $60 billion 'under the mattress' at home..."
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- MOSCOW, Nov. 27, 1998 -- (Reuters) Rats gnawed their way through $6,000
in U.S. dollar bills from a Russian family's savings which were stashed
in a glass jar in a cellar for safety, NTV television said on Thursday.
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- The family, which like millions of other
Russians distrust the crumbling banking system and prefer to keep their
savings at home, had to turn to a local bank in the Ural city of Chelyabinsk
for help, it said.
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- "They came asking to exchange the
damaged dollars," a local bank expert told NTV television, holding
up some of the banknotes with large pieces missing and rodents' teeth
marks. The rats had chewed through the glass jar's lid.
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- Notes with more than 50 percent of their
surface damaged could not be exchanged. The family lost about $6,000, but
the bank exchanged the remaining $24,000 for new dollar bills.
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- "Oh, there were a lot of tears,"
said the expert. There there were no further details about the family
available.
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- Russians are believed to keep between
$30 billion and $60 billion "under the mattress" at home, a
trend accentuated by the near-collapse in recent months of the banking
system. Most keep their savings in dollars, distrusting the vulnerable
ruble.
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- NTV said another popular way of keeping
savings, tucked away behind the fireplace, could also prove risky. It said
there had been several cases of people's hard-earned cash going up in flames
after unwitting relatives or friends lit a fire. ( (c) 1998 Reuters)
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