SEOUL, June 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's biggest-denomination bank notes took up about 85 percent of the total bills in circulation, 10 years after the introduction of the 50,000 won (43 U.S. dollars) bill, central bank data showed Wednesday.
In terms of value, the 50,000 won bill in circulation amounted to 98.2 trillion won (83.5 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of May, accounting for 84.6 percent of the total bills in circulation, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The number of the 50,000 won bills stood at 1.96 billion as of end-May, making up 36.9 percent of the total. It was followed by the 1,000 won bill with 1.6 billion in number and the 10,000 won bill with 1.48 billion each.
The 50,000 won bill was introduced in June 2009 to lower costs for printing smaller bills and minimize inconvenience for the use of 100,000 won cashier's check that requires an endorsement on the back.
The yearly use of the 100,000 won check tumbled from 930 million in 2008 to 80 million last year.
The ratio of the 50,000 won bill redemption to the issuance came in at 67 percent in 2018, bolstering worry about the biggest-denomination note that can be used for the slush fund creation or crime.
The redemption ratio for the 10,000 won bill came to 107 percent last year, trailed by the 5,000 bill with 97 percent and the 1,000 bill with 95 percent.
