The won is the currency of both North and South Korea. "Won" is a cognate of the Chinese currency unit, the yuan (//), meaning "round object". The won is subdivided into 100 jeon ().
Yang is a former Korean currency. It is a cognate of the Chinese tael ( pronounced "" in Mandarin). The yang was subdivided into 100 fun () (pronounced "pun" but spelt with an "f" on the coins). Fun is a cognate of the Chinese word fen (), referring to 1/100 of a Chinese yuan in modern context.
History Due to interchanging Chinese and Japanese influences, changing Romanization methods, and the use of both hanja (Sino-Korean characters) and hangul scripts, the etymology can be hard to understand.
From 1892 to 1902, when the yang was used, 1 hwan/won ( = 圓 in Chinese) = 5 yang (兩), while in the Chinese monetary system of that time, 1 yuan () = 0.72 tael (兩).
In 1902, the Dai-Ichi Bank (The First National Bank of Japan), which handled the Korean government's custom duties, obtained permission from the imperial Korean government to issue banknotes in yen replacing yang.
The table below summarizes the language used on the modern circulating and historical Korean currencies.
Period Subunit Main unit Super unit Note English Hanja Hangul Ratio English Hanja Hangul English Hanja Hangul Ratio1892-1902 fun 分 푼 1/100 yang 兩 냥 hwan 圜 환 5 1902-1910 chon 錢 전 1/100 won 圓 원 None 1 won = 10 yang of the previous period1902-1945 sen 錢 N/A 1/100 yen 圓 N/A None 1 yen = 1 won = 10 yangDue to the Japanese rule, the English transliterations were based on Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters.North Korea1945–present chon 錢 전 1/100 won 圓 원 None 1 won = 1 yen in 19451 new won = 1 old won in 1959.Use of Hanja disappeared after 1959South Korea1945-1953 chon 錢 전 1/100 won 圓 원 None 1 won = 1 yenSouth Korea1953-1962 chon 錢 전 1/100 hwan 圜 환 None 1 hwan = 100 won of the previous periodSouth Korea1962–present jeon 錢 전 1/100 won N/A 원 None 1 won = 10 hwan of the previous periodBold = what was actually printed on the notes or engraved on the coins
Use in the Western World The word jeon is also used in Korean to translate the word "cent," and in this context is associated with bul (불, 弗), meaning "dollar." (The hanja character resembles the symbol "$".) These two words are used by Koreans living in the Western hemisphere when referring to dollar currencies.
Sign and computing The won sign ("₩", a capital W with a horizontal stroke) is represented in Unicode at the code point 20A9 (8361 in decimal).
See also
Hanja Hangul Revised Romanization of Korean McCune–Reischauer
References