100 South Korean Won Banknote (Sejong The Great)

100 Won Won (Issued 1965)

Surviving examples of the 1965 South Korean 100 Won banknote are genuinely scarce, with relatively few well-preserved specimens having endured the decades since South Korea’s rapid economic transformation rendered them obsolete and withdrawn from circulation. The combination of ordinary daily handling, the humid climate of the Korean peninsula, and the widespread indifference to preservation that typically accompanies high-velocity circulation notes means that pristine examples are seldom encountered today. South Korea’s extraordinary economic rise through the 1960s and 1970s — a period of intense industrialisation — meant these notes passed through countless hands at great speed, leaving few unscathed survivors. Historians and currency researchers have long regarded this issue as an important primary document of the Won reform era, capturing the transitional identity of a nation redefining itself on the world stage.

On the front, the note is dominated by an intaglio-engraved portrait of Yi Hwang, the celebrated 16th-century Korean Confucian scholar and philosopher, occupying the right-hand portion of the design. He is depicted in traditional dress, wearing a dark gat — the characteristic wide-brimmed horsehair hat of the Joseon literati class — and a flowing pale robe, with a long white beard rendered in fine, precise line engraving that conveys considerable dignity and scholarly gravitas. The overall colour palette of the front is a soft sage green with grey-green tonal variation across the field. To the left of centre, a large denomination inscription reading 백 원 is printed in bold Korean Hangul script, flanked by decorative guilloché rosette patterns in lilac and pale green, which serve both an aesthetic and an anti-counterfeiting function. The central area carries the issuing authority name in Korean characters — 한국은행권 — printed across the upper field, with a further inscription 한국은행 appearing below, identifying the Bank of Korea. A prominent red circular official seal stamp is visible to the lower left of the central text panel. The serial number 나 010766731 appears twice, once in the upper left area and once along the lower right, printed in dark ink. The numeral 100 appears in the upper left and lower right corners of the note in both Korean and Western numerals, and the word 백, the Korean character for one hundred, is printed vertically along the left and right margins. Fine border patterns incorporating stylised floral and scrollwork motifs frame the entire composition, with intricate geometric lathe-work filling the background fields to deter reproduction. The paper has a pale cream-white quality with a slightly textured surface consistent with the security printing standards of the period.

The reverse is printed in a consistent mid-to-dark green ink across the entire composition, giving the note a distinctly monochromatic but richly detailed character. Dominating the centre-left of the reverse is a finely engraved architectural vignette depicting the main building of the Bank of Korea, a grand neo-classical stone structure with a prominent domed roof, colonnaded entrance, arched windows, and flanking wings visible in precise perspective. Trees and the surrounding grounds are rendered in delicate linework that adds depth to the architectural scene. To the right of the building vignette, a large circular denomination panel features the numeral 100 enclosed within an ornate guilloché border of petals and scrollwork, providing a bold focal counterpoint to the architectural image. The words THE BANK OF KOREA are printed prominently in Roman capital letters along the upper margin of the reverse, and the denomination 100 WON is inscribed along the lower margin in English, establishing the note’s international legibility. Decorative border panels incorporating scrollwork and geometric patterning run along all four edges, and the denomination numeral 100 appears in the upper left corner in smaller type. The overall engraving quality on the reverse reflects the detailed intaglio craftsmanship typical of mid-20th-century security printing, with fine cross-hatching and linework building tonal depth throughout the architectural scene.

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Other South Korean Won you can exchange: 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 50, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000.