The hwan was the currency of the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its east ...

(South Korea) between February 15, 1953, and June 9, 1962. It succeeded the first South Korean won and preceded the second South Korean won.

History

Due to the devaluation of the first South Korean won (from 15 won to the

U.S. dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

in 1945 to 6000 won to the dollar in 1953), the hwan was introduced in 1953 at the rate of 1 hwan = 100 won. The hwan was nominally subdivided into 100 ''jeon'' but the lowest denomination issued was 1 hwan. The hwan also suffered from inflation and a series of devaluations occurred. In 1962, the second South Korean won was reintroduced at a rate of 1 won = 10 hwan, after which inflation finally slowed down.

Coins

In 1959, coins were introduced in denominations of 10, 50 and 100 hwan. They were minted by the

Philadelphia Mint The Philadelphia Mint in Philadelphia was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national ...

. The 10 and 50 hwan coins continued to circulate until March 22, 1975, but the 100 hwan coins were withdrawn on June 10, 1962.

Banknotes

In 1953, banknotes were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 100 and 1000 hwan. Some of these notes were printed in the U.S. and gave the denomination in English and

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

as won. 500 hwan notes were introduced in 1956, followed by 1000 hwan in 1957 and 50 hwan in 1958.

American printed notes

The first hwan notes were printed by the

United States Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...

. All

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

and

inscription on both the obverse and reverse sides of these notes are written right to left (traditional direction), instead of the modern (Westernized) left to right. They have a few obvious defects. The term "''hwan''" is written in Hanja (圜) while "''won''" is written in Hangul (원) and English. Those problems were attributed to an urgent need for new banknotes and the change in currency name, as well as the decision to commission the new notes to be manufactured in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Unaware banknote catalog editors may erroneously categorize these notes as part of the old won system, such as the ''Standard Catalog of World Paper Money'' by

Albert Pick Albert Pick (born 15 May 1922, Cologne – 22 November 2015, Garmisch-Partenkirchen) was a German numismatist. An internationally acknowledged authority on the subject of paper money, Pick wrote the first modern catalog of banknotes in 1974, and is ...

Korean printed notes

References

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External links

Bank of Korea, ''1953-1962 banknotes''Bank of Korea, ''A Brief History of Korean Currency''Bank of Korea, ''Currency Issue System''
{{Economy of South Korea Currencies of South Korea Modern obsolete currencies 1953 in South Korea 1953 establishments in South Korea 1962 disestablishments Economic history of South Korea