The yen was the currency of

Korea, Empire of Japan From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan under the name Chōsen (), the Japanese reading of "Joseon". Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea (Joseon) and Japan had been under polic ...

between 1910 and 1945. It was equivalent to the

Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. Th ...

and consisted of Japanese currency and banknotes issued specifically for Korea. The yen was subdivided into 100 sen. It replaced the

Korean won Korean won primarily refers to: * South Korean won, the present currency of South Korea * North Korean won The Korean People's won, more commonly known as the North Korean won (currency symbol, symbol: ₩; ISO 4217, code: KPW; ) and someti ...

at par and was replaced by the

South Korean won The South Korean won (symbol: ₩; code: KRW; ) is the official currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions, and it appears only in foreign exchange ...

and the

North Korean won The Korean People's won, more commonly known as the North Korean won (currency symbol, symbol: ₩; ISO 4217, code: KPW; ) and sometimes known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea won (), is the official currency of North Korea. It is ...

at par.

Banknotes

From 1902 to 1910, banknotes were issued by . Denominations included 10 sen, 20 sen, 50 sen, 1 yen, 5 yen, and 10 yen. The sen notes were vertical and resembled the Japanese sen notes of 1872 and the

Japanese military yen Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

at the turn of the century. These notes were redeemable in "Japanese Currency at any of its Branches in Korea". In 1909, the

Bank of Korea The Bank of Korea (BOK; ) is the central bank of South Korea and issuer of South Korean won. It was established on 12 June 1950 in Seoul, South Korea. The bank's primary purpose is price stability. For that, the bank inflation targeting, targ ...

(韓國銀行) was founded in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

as a central bank and began issuing currency of modern type. Following the establishment of the Bank of Korea, it would immediately begin to issue its own banknotes, these new banknotes were redeemable "in

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

or Nippon Ginko notes." Most of the reserves held by the Bank of Korea at the time were banknotes issued by the Bank of Japan and commercial paper. The banknotes issued by the Bank of Korea were only very slightly modified from the earlier Dai-Ichi Bank banknotes that had circulated in Korea, this was done to reduce any possible confusion during the transition period. The name of the Bank of Korea was inserted and the royal plum crest of Korea replaced Dai-Ichi Bank's 10-pointed star emblem, and the reverse sides of the 1 yen banknotes changed colour, but all the overall the changes were minute. Bank of Korea notes were dated 1909 and issued in 1910 and 1911. After Korea lost sovereignty to Japan in 1910, the Bank of Korea was renamed the

Bank of Chōsen The Bank of Chōsen (, ''Joseon Eunhaeng''), known from 1909 to 1911 as the Bank of Korea ( ''Kankoku Ginkō'', ''Hanguk Eunhaeng'') and transcribed after 1945 as Bank of Joseon, was a colonial bank that served as bank of issue for Korea under J ...

(朝鮮銀行, Korean: Joseon Eunhaeng, Japanese: Chōsen Ginkō). The first Bank of Chosen note was dated 1911 and issued in 1914. 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, and 100 yen were issued regularly, while there were occasionally some sen notes (5, 10, 20, 50 sen). 1000 yen was printed but never issued at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The earlier issues were redeemable "in Gold or Nippon Ginko Note". A similar phrase was written in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

on later issues. The image of an old man on the currency is probably an allegorical representation of longevity possibly based on Kim Yun-sik

Sen

1916

1919

1937

Yen

1911

1932

1938

1944

1945

References

* * {{Portal bar, Money, Numismatics Economy of Korea under Japanese rule Modern obsolete currencies Currencies of Korea 1910 establishments in Korea 1945 disestablishments in Korea