Posted on 05/02/2007 10:05:07 PM PDT by Tamar1973
The Bank of Korea will finally issue new large-denomination banknotes in the first half of 2009, it said Wednesday, ending decades when the highest demomination has been W10,000 (approximately US$10). "The current highest denomination is too low compared to the income and price level, and is causing inconvenience," BOK governor Lee Seong-tae said at a press conference. "Since 1973, when the circulation of W10,000 bills began, commodity prices have grown 12-fold and the gross national income has become 150 times larger, but the highest denomination had been preserved for 34 years.” Discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the government agency that approves the issue of banknotes, is complete and the administrative process will be finished this year, he added.
The portraits on the new bills will be of a figure selected in the surveys and through advice from experts. The central bank said the W100,000 and W50,000 bills will save some W280 billion a year on W100,000 cashier’s checks, which are widely used in lieu of banknotes. The expected decreased use of W10,000 bills is estimated to save another W40 billion a year.
It is high time. In most advanced countries, the highest denomination is between 10 to 60 times higher than Korea’s. The average value of the maximum denomination in the other 29 OECD member countries is W370,000. The central bank has long pushed for W100,000 bills but shelved the plan because the Finance Ministry rejected it. The ministry claimed the notes would trigger inflation and irregularities like bribery. But the National Assembly last year adopted a resolution calling for higher-denomination banknotes, and the ministry finally gave in.
Since designing and printing takes about two years, the design of the new bills should be decided by September or October this year. Based on the results of a poll conducted by Lee’s predecessor, there are several candidates for the face on new banknotes. At the time, the public chose historical figures including King Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910); independence fighter Kim Koo, who led provisional government in Shanghai and fought against the trusteeship of the U.S. and the Soviet Union after liberation from Japanese rule; Sejong-era scientist Chang Yong-sil; Mid-Chosun-era female artist Shin Saimdang, the mother of Confucian scholar Yulkok Yi Yi; and Chung Yak-yong, a late Chosun scholar.
Given the pressure from scientists and women’s groups, it is expected that a woman will grace at least one of the two bills. The new W100,000 note will probably measure 6.8 cm in length, the same as current W10,000 note, but 16 cm in width, which is 1.2 cm wider.
The penny is just as dumb.
At the moment, bank-issued checks(a la Cashier's check) doulbe as high denomination note.
More work for those counterfeiters north of the border...but their work just got 10 times more valuable.
But there's a fee for that, right?
I think *those* counterfeiters do a lot more work in USD than in SK won. LOL!
Yeah, a few hundred won(a few dimes.)
Yup, but I’ll bet they’ll be switching more attention to the KRW now.
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