Most people only associate foreign coins with overseas travel, but some have discovered them in foreign waste being shipped to China and started a business from it, without realizing they are committing a crime.

Wang Chuwei, 57, from Wenling city of East China's Zhejiang province was given a jail term of 26 months for recycling foreign coins found in solid garbage from overseas.

In nine months, Wang and his workshop sourced, cleaned and processed 10 tons of foreign coins, turning them into brand new currency worth nearly 6.69 million yuan ($1.07 million).

Wang was hired by his brother-in-law Liang Enmei, an antique dealer in Shanghai, to recycle the coins and send them back to Liang, who sold them to the coins' original countries. Liang was sentenced to six year in jail.

Garbage containing hazardous materials can cause serious contamination if imported and processed inappropriately. China last year launched Operation Green Fence banning imports that cannot be used as raw materials or harmlessly recycled.

Neither Wang nor Liang were convicted of smuggling foreign garbage to China but were found guilty of "illegally buying and selling foreign currency", although Wang was not directly involved in the selling.

An online survey by qq.com, a leading Chinese news portal, found that more than 90 percent of netizens thought Wang should not be sent to jail.

Also in Zhejiang province, a group of three people involved in a similar business were earlier variously sentenced to nine years, eight years and nine months and seven years and nine months in jail, for recycling and selling foreign coins worth 130 million yuan.