Taiwan Cards

Starbucks Coffee International opens locations in Taiwan, along with
Thailand, New Zealand, and Malaysia in 1998.

How Taiwanese Cards work:

First and foremost, Cards are purchased, usually 100NT (about $3.15 depending on the exchange rate)
The customer can now load the Card with 1000 NT (about $31.50) and they'll get a "point". A "point" entitles
the customer to a free drink. 10 "points" can get a free tumbler, etc.

Taiwan is the most progressive country for Card releases, one coming about every three weeks or so.
These Cards are truly unique. Besides moving the Starbucks logo
to the bottom left or bottom right, they have built-in "smart chips." Because Taiwan
has a severe problem with fraud, Starbucks of Taiwan decide to use the anti-fraud IC-chip card.
Cards issued in Taiwan are only good in that country.

Starbucks Coffee International also issued "charity cards" to registered Taiwanese members in November 2003.
500 sets of the Butterfly, 5th Anniversary and Double-shot were available to these members
for a price. Since they don't have an IC-chip built in, they had no function other than for collections/collectors.
Each of these cards have an embossed number on the back for tracking/identification.
The money raised for the "charity cards" went to the education of native Taiwanese!

In addition, most Cards have an interesting sleeve. See them on the Special Sleeves page.

Click each image for more information.