Have you ever wandered about in a convenience store in South Korea? For a a lot of new comers, it’s hard enough trying to figure out what all those strange letters mean, not to mention the headache of trying to pay for it. Hopefully, this post will straighten out some curiosities that you might have with Korean currency.

Let’s take a look at the coins first.

₩1 : has the 무궁화  on one side of the coin and the numeral one on the other side of the coin. The 무궁화 is South Korea’s national flower. 
₩5 : has the 거북선 or turtle ship on one side and the numeral five on the other side. The 거북선 is the warship responsible for defeating the multiple Japanese invasions of 1592-1598.

₩10 : has the 다보탑. The 다보탑 is a temple in South Korea. It’s considered one Korea’s architectural treasures.

₩50 : has a stalk of rice.

₩100 : has General 이순신 on one side. General 이순신 was one of Korea’s most loved generals.

Next time I’ll describe the type of money having to do with the “paper” kind.