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Won for the money, to show

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Korean currency is denominated simply into Won.  Given inflation of the 70s, it now has lots of zeroes.  However, because the exchange rate is quite near USdollar decimals — at 1100won to the dollar, now increasing in value so it will soon be 1000won to the dollar — it is easiest for us to simply treat 1won as equaling 1/10 of a cent.  Thus, a one-thousand-won bill is like a dollar bill.   A ten-thousand-won bill is like a ten-dollar bill.  Easy!

I think the won has a bit better purchasing power also — many small items can be purchased for under a dollar, whereas it is rare for anything substantial in the US to be sold for under a dollar.
It is interesting to note that, just as in the US, coins are less and less important:  there is no coin valued as much as a dollar (unlike in Canada or Europe).

I would guess that the government in Korea has a problem similar to that of all mints — it now costs them more to produce and distribute small coins than those coins are actually worth!  The US penny and nickel cost the government around ten cents to produce.   To their credit, a couple years ago, Korea changed their penny-equivalent 10-won coin to a tiny copper-colored aluminum thing that’s hardly worth messing with.  And now, we use them only in grocery stores.
Because Korea uses the Value-Added Tax system that incorporates the consumption tax into the price of the goods, most products sell at nice even hundred- or thousand-won increments.   As a further benefit, the service charge (tip) is priced into all services — that is, No Tipping -- so it is wonderfully easy to budget and allocate spending money in restaurants, taxis, stores, etc.   and wonderfully easy to split the tab when dining with a group of people!

I wonder how much the US sales tax method of charging obscure percentages on top of a stated price actually costs in terms of miscalculated values, overcharged customers, time spent calculating and arguing over the calculation; add to that, time spent counting and dealing with pennies and nickels that such a percentage method causes.

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