Paper Money Size Reduction Details Released

A smaller 5,000 won note, reinforced with anti-forgery and anti-alteration devices, will be issued in the first half of next year. After this, a new 1,000 won note and 10,000 won note will be issued in the first half of 2007.

It has been 23 years since new banknotes were issued in 1983.

Not only can one use existing paper money after the issuance of the new paper money, but also one will be able to exchange existing paper money for the new paper money anytime, anywhere.

Park Seung, the governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK) held a news conference on April 18, announcing the “new banknote issuance plan designed to prevent forgery.”

To begin with, the BOK has decided to issue a new 5,000 won note in the first half of next year since the 5,000 won note has recently been a target of counterfeiters and in short supply.

The size of the new paper money will be reduced by 13-15 millimeters in width and seven millimeters in length, according to the type of banknote, respectively. The biggest sized note, the 10,000 won note, will have dimensions of 148 by 69 millimeters, which will be similar to the size of U.S. paper money (155.9 by 66.3 millimeters).

The BOK has decided that the 10,000 won note will keep its current green color in order to easily differentiate between kinds of the banknotes, but decided to change the color of the 5,000 won note and 1,000 won note to a reddish yellow color from a yellowish brown color, and to a bluish color from light purple color, respectively.

In addition, high-tech anti-forgery devices, including holograms, concentric fine lines, and Intaglio Latent Images, which differ in color and pattern at different angles, will be introduced.

Regarding the portraits on the faces of the new paper money, the BOK has decided to continue using the current portraits of King Sejong (10,000 won note), Yulgok Yi-yi (5,000 won note), and Toegye Yi Hwang (1,000 won note).

Kyung-Joon Chung news91@donga.com