I went to the exchange bank today and turned a bushel of won into a handful of greenbacks. I took the won in a small fag-bag that’s big enough to carry a couple of dictionaries.

When I left I could fit the same amount nicely in my pocket. At nearly 1000:1 ratio of won to dollars, even the 10,000won notes consume a lot of space since they represent close to just US$10. One of the $100 bills is worth ten of the won notes in the previous picture. Paper to paper, therefore is a 10:1. If they ever do the 100,000won note, US$5K would carry about the same weight in paper as won.  If you ever need to buy something big here in Korea, you either carry a satchel or create a bank check – personal checks aren’t done here. So far, neither are debit cards.