By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter



An employee of the Bank of Korea shows the forgery-proof design of the new 1,000-won banknote on Tuesday.
/ Yonhap


The Bank of Korea (BOK) Tuesday unveiled the design of a new 1,000-won banknote with new features designed to stem forgery.
The collar of the new note will change from the current reddish violet to blue and its size will be smaller than the old one. The new bill is 13.6 centimeters long and 6.8 centimeters wide; 6 millimeters smaller than the new 5,000-won bill in width and exactly the same in length.

The bank said it plans to issue the new 1,000-won bills early next year, along with new 10,000-won bills. It will also unveil the specimen of the new 10,000-won note soon.

The BOK has started printing the new 1,000-won notes at the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation in Kyongsan, North Kyongsang Province.

The central bank is now changing the designs of banknotes and introducing improved anti-forgery features for the new notes.

On Jan.2, the bank issued new 5,000-won banknotes that adopted improved anti-forgery features, including the use of special inks appearing in different colors depending on the angle it is seen.

The note changes are in response to calls for the bank to take measures against a growing number of bogus notes.

On Friday, the BOK said it is considering issuing new 10-won coins, using different material to the old ones, following reports that some people melt 10-won coins to extract the cooper and zinc to produce accessories for sale. It said manufacturing costs for the 10-won coin have soared 15 times since its first release in 1966 because of surging copper and zinc prices.

The bank said it stopped printing the 1,000-won and 10,000-won notes late last year.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr