Behold, the new 50,000 won Korean Note!! Just put into circulation, I exchanged my 600 Chinese Yuan from my trip to Shanghai for two of these babies.

These are the highest denomination notes by five-fold, just put into circulation this week. For almost 40 years, the 10,000 won Korean note has been the highest denomination bill, which is worth less than 8 US dollars.  You basically have to walk around with stacks of bills if you need cash for traveling, or if you want to buy anything over a couple hundred dollars with cash.

Several interesting features about the new 50,000 won note:

-First Korean note to feature a woman – the great Shin Saim-dang from 16th century – famous painter and author, but most notable as the mother of the philosopher Yul-goke

-Heightened security with an anti-counterfeit metallic strip that runs across the top and bottom of the bill (in the photo I took above, notice the metallic strip along the left side of the first bill)

-Slightly larger in size than the 10,000 won note

-Looks very similar to a 5,000 won note which has almost the same colors and almost the same numbers – has already drawn many complaints

-Issues with the security strip separating at the end of the bill – possible problems with ATM machines

-Issues with small shops needing to keep more change for the higher denomination bill

-Current surge in demand for counterfeit note detectors

My opinion of the new 50,000 won note? I think it’s terrific. Much easier to keep count of my cash, and my wallet just got a lot thinner!

source 1, source 2