| 圓 / 원 (Korean) | |
|---|---|
 A half won (半圜) coin issued in 1905. | |
| Denominations | |
| Subunit | |
| 1⁄100 | jeon (錢) |
| Demographics | |
| Date of introduction | 1900 |
| Replaced | Korean yang |
| Replaced by | Korean yen andJapanese yen |
| User(s) |  Korean Empire |
| Valuation | |
| Pegged with |  Japanese yen = 1 won |
| This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete. | |
TheKorean won (/wɒn/won[1]Korean: 원;Hanja: 圓,Korean pronunciation:[wʌn]) orKorean Empire won (대한제국 원), was the official currency of theKorean Empire between 1900 and 1910. It was subdivided into 100jeon (/dʒʌn/jun;[2]전;錢,Korean pronunciation:[tɕʌn]).
| Korean Empire won | |
| Hunminjeongeum | 원, 전 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 圓, 錢 |
| Revised Romanization | won, jeon |
| McCune–Reischauer | wŏn, chŏn |
Won is acognate of theChinese yuan andJapanese yen, which were both derived from theSpanish-American silver dollar. It is derived from thehanja圓 (원,won), meaning "round", which describes the shape of the silver dollar.
The Korean won,Chinese yuan andJapanese yen were all derived from theSpanish-American silver dollar, a coin widely used for international trade between Asia and the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries.
On May 22, 1901 the Korean Empire adopted thegold standard in response to many other countries doing the same.[3] The won was introduced in 1902, replacing theyang at a rate of 1 won = 10 yang. Units: 1 won = 100 jeon (錢), 1 jeon = 5 bun (分, "fun" ec. yesteryear spellings) of the preceding currency. Gold coins were produced in the denominations of 5, 10, and 20 won. All of these coins had a composition of 90%gold and 10%copper.[3] Another notable feature of these coins is that they, unlike the earlieryang coinage, contained noEnglish inscriptions as they only containedChinese andHangul legends.[3]
As a part of theRussian influence in Korea at the time, the Koreans introduced a small number of "Russified" coins between the years 1901 and 1902, but these coins would prove to be unsuccessful as they were swept away by the flood ofcupronickel coins.[4]
The disagreements between the Japanese and Russian Empires led to theRusso-Japanese War when Japan attackedPort Arthur inRussian Dalian andIncheon in Korea, the war ended in a Japanese victory, Japan occupied theKwantung Leased Territory and theKorean peninsula.[4] The Japanese immediately took control over Korean financial matters. On October 16, 1904 the Koreans acceptedBaronMegata Tanetarō from the Japanese Ministry of Finance as financial adviser to their government,[5][6][4] Megata was assigned to assume complete jurisdiction over Korea's finances.[7] When Megata arrived in Korea, he toldSir John Newell Jordan, the British Minister-Resident in Korea at the time, that the Japanese protectorate over Korea was being modeled onBritish rule in Egypt.[8] One of the first recommendations by Baron Megata was to close all Korean Mints and commence a reform of the Korean currency. One of the primary policies he proposed was removing the cupronickel coins from circulation.[4]
After the Japanese had pressured the Korean Mint Bureau, which had beenstriking coins for 20 years, to close in November of the year 1904,[3] all gold coins of the won were produced at theJapan Mint inOsaka (日本大阪造幣局).[3] In 1905 the Japan Mint began to produce the Korean won's new coinage, this entirely new series was modeled almost exactly on thepatterns of contemporary Japanese coins and even used the sameplanchets.[4]
As the coins of the Korean won were being struck on the same planchets as the Japanese yen, when the Japanese would reduce the weight of the minor coinages of the yen in 1906, the weights and sizes of Korean coins were also reduced in 1907.[4] This was also because the Japanese and Korean coins were circulating as equivalents to each other in exchange at the time.[4]
In the year 1907 the imperial Korean government had designated the Japanese Dai-Ichi Bank to carry out the monetary reforms that were suggested by the Japanese adviser to Korea Baron Megata Tanetarō.[4] The Dai-Ichi Bank attempted to withdraw the cupronickel coinage, recall theyeopjeon, and help circulate the newly introduced coinage that was minted in Osaka. During this era Korean cash coins were still largely circulating in the regions of southern and north-eastern Korea.[4] The task of withdrawing the cupronickel coinage from circulation proved to not be an easy one because of the substantial number of counterfeit cupronickel coins that were circulating in Korea at the time, these counterfeit coins were redeemed by the Dai-Ichi Bank at reduced rates from the "official" cupronickel coins; during the exchange process, it was assumed by everybody that theirs cupronickel were "official" cupronickel coins and demanded the maximum exchange rate.[4] The withdrawal ofcopper-alloy Korean cash coins was made easier due to a global rise in the price of copper, during this era thousands of pounds of copper-alloy Korean cash coins were exported at a profit.[4]
In the year 1908, Korea was hit by a panic when the value of nickel dropped significantly, this led to the Korean public quickly exchanging their cupronickel at the banks.[9] A staggering amount of 266.480,000 of cupronickel coins were exchanged during this panic.[9] This panic would lead to the demonetisation of the Korean cupronickel coinage in November 1908.[9] In the year 1909 there were supposedly 4,000,000 of 5 jeon nickel coins that were struck at the Japan Mint, however, most were melted down due to their demonetised status.[9] Copper coins during this period were not affected by the panic exchange. Older coins collected by the banks from July 1905 to October 1907 resulted to be more than 375 tonnes. If it assumed that only cupronickel 5 fun coins of 7 grams were collected by the banks, more than 53,000,000 would have been collected from general circulation.[9]
After 1908, circulation of the old cupronickel coins was outlawed by the imperial Korean government, while the cast copper-alloy cash coins remained to belegal tender in Korea at a value of 0.2 jeon, which meant that they had a nominal value of1⁄500 won.[4]
PrinceHirobumi Ito pointed out to the Korean government the anomalous situation of having a foreign (Japanese)commercial bank as thecentral bank of their government and recommended that the Koreans create their own central bank in the same way that others nations had,[4] and so in 1909, theBank of Korea (한국은행;韓國銀行) was founded inSeoul as acentral bank and began issuing currency of a modern type.[4] And on 10 November 1909 many of the functions of the Dai-Ichi Bank were passed onto the newly established Bank of Korea.[4]
The Bank of Korea assumed responsibility for the banknotes issued by the Dai-Ichi Bank that were still in circulation (which totalled 12,000,000 yen), the Dai-Ichi Bank would further transfer to the Bank of Korea the 4,000,000 yen in specie reserves which backed its banknotes. The balance was converted by the Bank of Korea to an interest-free 20-year loan to the Dai-Ichi Bank.[4]
In the year 1910 theJapanese had formally annexed Korea, this meant that Korea's native currency system would become an arm of theJapanese currency system.[4] As a part of the reforms of Korea during the colonial period Korean coinage was suspended;[4] Japanese coinage was then introduced to the peninsula to replace it, although the Japanese created no "crash" program of recall,[4] nine years later in 1919 as much as 25% of all Korean won coins remained in circulation as only 75% of the Korean coinage had been withdrawn by the Japanese.[4]
The won was equivalent to theJapanese yen and was replaced by theKorean yen in 1910 during theColonial Era. In 1911, the Bank of Korea was renamed theBank of Chōsen (Korean:조선은행; 朝鮮銀行), which issued notes denominated inyen andsen.
Coins were minted in the denominations of1⁄2, 1, 5, 10 and 20 jeon,1⁄2, 5, 10 and 20 won.[3] The coins all carried the title of the "state",Daehan (대한;大韓),[3] and theKorean era name,Gwangmu (광무;光武) and thenYunghui (융희;隆熙), whilst the specifications were equivalent to the coins of theJapanese yen.[3]
In 1906 Korea's firstgold coinage was created, in denominations of 5 won, 10 won, and 20 won.[4] These coins were also of identical weight and fineness to their Japanese counterparts, but used adragon which was similar to the previous generation of Japanese yen gold coins in their designs.[4]
The dragon symbol was replaced by thephoenix on the1⁄2 jeon, 1 jeon, and 5 jeon coins when these coins started being produced by the Japan Mint.[3]
List of coins of the Korean won:[3]
| Korean Won Coins | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obverse | Reverse | Denomination | Composition | Diameter (in millimeters) | Weight (in grams) | Thickness (in millimeters) | Years of production |
 |  | 1⁄2 jeon (半錢)[10] | 95%copper, 4%tin, 1%zinc | 21.9 (1906) 19.1 (1907–1910) | 3.4 (1906) 2.1 (1907–1910) | 1.5 (1906) 1 (1907–1910) | 1906–1910 |
 | | 1 jeon (一錢) | 98% copper, 1% tin, 1% zinc | 28 (1905–1906) 22.5 (1907–1910) | 7.1 (1905–1906) 4.1 (1907–1910) | 1.5 (1905–1906) 1 (1907–1910) | 1905–1910 |
| | 5 jeon (五錢) | Cupronickel (75% copper and 25%nickel) | 20.8 | 4 | 2 | 1905, 1907, and 1909 |
| | 10 jeon (十錢)[11][12][13] | 800‰silver, 200‰ copper | 17.6 | 2.5, 2.25 (1907 only) | 1.5 | 1906–1910 |
| | 20 jeon (二十錢)[14][15][16] | 22.8 (1905–1906) 20.3 (1907–1910) | 5.4 (1905–1906) 4 (1907–1910) | 1.5 | 1905–1910 | |
| 1⁄2 won (半圜)[17][18][19] | 31 (1905–1906) 27.5 (1907–1908) | 13.5 (1905–1906) 10.13 (1907–1908) | 2 | 1905–1908 | ||
| | 5 won (五圜)[20] | 900‰gold, 100‰ copper | 17 | 4.1666 | 1 | 1908–1909 |
| | 10 won (十圜)[21][22] | 21.2 | 8.3 | 1.5 | 1906 and 1909 | |
| 20 won (二十圜)[23][24] | 28.8 | 16.667 | 2 | 1906, 1908, and 1909 | ||
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No banknotes were issued denominated in won. However,Korean yen notes were issued by Dai-Ichi Ginko (First National Bank (of Japan), 주식회사제일은행, 株式會社第一銀行). The Dai-Ichi Bank's role as treasury bank for the imperial Korean government, its responsibility for recalling the old cupronickel and Korean cash coinage, and the fact that this bank issued the only banknotes that ever gained universal acceptance in Korea at the time emphasised the fact that the Dai-Ichi Bank held a status of being thede facto "Central Bank of Korea" until the founding of the Bank of Korea.[4]
Both local banks and quasi-governmental firms had tried to establish a paper money system in Korea during this era, but none of their issues seemed to have been readily accepted by the public.[4] The Dai-Ichi Bank had petitioned theimperial Japanese government to be granted permission to issue banknotes in Korea, to augment the demonetised Japanese yen coins that it was importing, this was because in the year 1885 the imperial government had monopolised the issuing of banknotes and prohibited banks from doing this in Japan.[4]
After the imperial Japanese government has granted this permission, the Dai-Ichi Bank released banknotes in the year 1902 that were printed by the Japanese Finance Ministry Printing Bureau.[4] InSouthern Korea they were well received in the trade port cities, but faced rejection in theRussian influenced cities of Seoul and Incheon. This was because of the ongoing rivalry between Japan and Russia. In the year 1902 the Russians successfully petitioned the Korean government to ban all banknotes issued by the Dai-Ichi Bank, but this ban only lasted for a few months.[4]
The Dai-Ichi Bank had enough fiscal and economic strength to redeem every banknote that was presented to them when they were banned from circulating, later the Dai-Ichi Bank was able to withstand yet anotherrun on its banknotes, this meant that public confidence in the issues of the Dai-Ichi Bank grew in Korea which helped the bank succeed.[4]
In the year 1905 the Dai-Ichi Bank had been designated the "treasury bank" for the Korean government, which meant that it served as the Korean government's agent for depositories and disbursing finances.[4]
The Dai-Ichi Bank would issue fractional denomination banknotes (banknotes with denominations smaller than 1 yen) for the Imperial Japanese Army soldiers that were operating innorthern Korea andManchuria.[4] Since these banknotes were printed by theJapanese Ministry of Finance, they were almost identical to the banknotes issued by the imperial Japanese government themselves for these same soldiers.[4] The fractional banknotes issued by the Dai-Ichi Bank were seen as being very convenient, and were soon circulating all over the Korean peninsula.[4]
Following the establishment of the Bank of Korea, it would immediately begin to issue its own banknotes, these new banknotes were redeemable "ingold orNippon Ginko notes."[4] Most of the reserves held by the Bank of Korea at the time were banknotes issued by the Bank of Japan and commercial paper.[4]
Following the Japanese victory during theFirst Sino-Japanese War, the Qing dynasty's influence over theKorean peninsula was replaced by that of the Japanese Empire.[3] Furthermore China's weakened position during this era allowed for the interests of theRussian Empire in theFar East to expand significantly as well.[3] The Russian Empire sent Mr. Alexiev as the financial advisor to Korea. On March 1, 1898 the first branch of theRusso-Korean Bank inAsia was established.[3] In the year 1901, Alexiev authorised the minting of a new set of three coins, these were Korean "Eagle" coins were issued by the Russo-Korean Bank.[3]
These coins are known as the Korean "Eagle" coins because the fact that instead of having aKorean dragon orKorean phoenix in their design they have a crownedeagle based on thecoat of arms of Russia.[3] All of the Korean "Eagle" coins were minted at theYongsan Mint (龍山典局).[3] These coins would prove to be unsuccessful as they were swept away by the flood ofcupronickel coins.[4]
The Russo-Korean bank also created a set of experimental coins (or "trial coins") that were produced but never saw any circulation. This unissued coin series included a copper 10 won (十圜), a copper 20 won (二十圜), and a silver "half dollar" (半圜, "half won").[3] While all of these unissued Korean "Eagle" coins were reportedly minted in the year 1901, the coins display various other dates such as 1899, 1901, 1902, or 1903.[3]
Following the Japanese victory during theRusso-Japanese War and Korea becoming a Japanese protectorate under theEulsa Treaty, the Japanese would confiscate and destroy almost all Korean "Eagle" coins.[3] Because of this, surviving Korean "Eagle" coins are extremely rare.[3]
List of issued Korean "Eagle" coins:[3]
| Korean "Eagle" Coins Issued by the Russo-Korean Bank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obverse | Reverse | Denomination | Composition | Diameter (in millimeters) | Weight (in grams) | Thickness (in millimeters) | Years of production |
| | 1 jeon (一錢)[25] | 98%copper, 1%tin, 1%zinc | 28 | 8 | 1902 (光武六年) | |
| | 5 jeon (五錢)[26] | Cupronickel (75% copper, 25%nickel) | 20.5 | 5.4 | 1902 (光武六年) | |
| | 1⁄2 won (半圜)[27] | 90%silver, 10% copper | 30.9 | 13.5 | 2 | 1901 (光武五年) |
List of unissued Korean "Eagle"pattern coins:[3]
| Unissued Korean "Eagle" pattern coins created by the Russo-Korean Bank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obverse | Reverse | Denomination | Composition | Diameter (in millimeters) | Weight (in grams) | Thickness (in millimeters) | Dates on the coins |
| | 10 won (十圜)[28] | Copper | 1903 (光武七年) | |||
| | 20 won (二十圜)[29] | Copper | 1902 (光武六年) | |||
| Preceded by: Korean yang Reason: heavier influence byJapan Ratio: 1 won = 10 yang | Currency ofKorea 1902 – 1910 Concurrent with:Korean yen | Succeeded by: Korean yen Reason:complete annexation by Japan Ratio: at par |
