Money

The Korean Won is an interesting thing that I felt warranted it's own post. I've only seen three amounts of bills: 1,000; 5,000; and 10,000. I'm not sure if there are larger bills, but I would think they'd have 50,000 and 100,000 Won bills. Their change comes in 500, 100, 50 and 10 Won sizes. Unlike US greenbacks each bill is a different color. 1,000 is blue/purple; 5,000 is kind of orange/red; and 10,000 is green. The only difference with their change is that the penny is larger than the nickel, but both are smaller than the dime.

The strange thing about the figures on their bills is that they all have beards. So far I have not seen a single Korean man with a beard. More research is required.

I also really like the system they have. In the States, a dollar fifty is 1.50; the equivalent would be 1,500 Won. At first this confused the heck out of me and led to my extravagant tip to the taxi driver. But the more familiar I am with it, the more efficient it seems. When I think about USD, the buck stops at the period and change seems almost pointless to carry on you; I never carried change around the US. In Korea, my idea of their money is that it flows right on through the comma making the change much more significant to carry around. It also deters me from spending large sums of money. I paid 34,900 for a comforter and felt like I was spending a lot of money. However, when I think of the cost as 34.90 it seems like a minor purchase.

I'm aware that all of my reasons for preferring the Korean system are based on personal reasons. As I become better versed in the Korean monetary system I'll post proper arguments in support of or against the use of the ,000 vs .00.