Story highlights Vets removed about 11 pounds of local and foreign currency from the turtle

She is expected to be released into the ocean after she recovers

(CNN) It took several hours for vets in Thailand to remove 915 coins from inside a green sea turtle.

How did they get there in the first place?

She'd been eating them as tourists tossed them into her pond for good luck.

"It is hard to imagine how it swallowed such a large number of coins," Pasakorn Brikshavana, a vet with the Chulalongkorn University team that performed surgery, told the Bangkok Post. "I've never seen such a case before."

Photos posted on the university's Facebook page showed the medical team holding a basket filled with coins -- about 11 pounds of both local and foreign currency -- recovered from inside the 25-year-old turtle.

Veterinarians with Chulalongkorn University show the coins recovered from the green sea turtle.

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