1.1566 Trillion KRW of Damaged Currency Destroyed in First Half of Year... 96 Times Taller Than Lotte World Tower

The Bank of Korea announced on the 4th that it destroyed 191.66 million damaged banknotes (1.1566 trillion won) during the first half of this year.

Among the banknotes, 169.43 million notes (1.1541 trillion won) were destroyed, mainly consisting of 10,000-won bills.

By denomination, the breakdown is as follows: 93 million 10,000-won notes (54.9%), 65.5 million 1,000-won notes (38.7%), 8.6 million 5,000-won notes (5.1%), and 2.3 million 50,000-won notes (1.4%).

For coins, 22.23 million coins (2.5 billion won) were destroyed, mainly 10-won coins.

The 10-won coin accounted for the largest share at 9.5 million coins (42.9%), followed by 5.6 million 100-won coins (25.2%), 3.7 million 50-won coins (16.5%), and 3.4 million 500-won coins (15.4%).

If the destroyed banknotes were laid end to end, the total length would be 24,765 km, which is roughly equivalent to about 30 round trips on the Gyeongbu Expressway (415 km). The total height stacked would be 53,459 meters, six times the height of Mount Everest (8,849 m) and 96 times the height of Lotte World Tower (555 m).

The amount of damaged currency destroyed in the first half of the year decreased by 31.44 million notes (14.1%) compared to the same period last year (223.1 million notes).

For banknotes, the decline of 8.57 million notes compared to the same period last year (178 million notes) was influenced by the development of non-cash payment methods, the expansion of non-face-to-face transactions, and sluggish banknote returns due to the intensified spread of COVID-19 at the beginning of the year.

For coins, the amount decreased by 22.87 million coins compared to the same period last year (45.1 million coins), due to a temporary surge in coin returns during the first half of last year.

The Bank of Korea destroys currency deemed unsuitable for circulation due to damage or contamination among the collected currency. Both banknotes and coins are uniformly counted in units of "notes" (jang).

In cases where banknotes are partially or fully damaged by fire or other causes and become unusable, if the remaining area is three-quarters or more, the full face value is exchanged; if the remaining area is between two-fifths and less than three-quarters, half the face value is exchanged.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.