South Korea's shift to aluminium for this denomination came as the country's rapid industrialization under Park Chung-hee's export-driven economic model made the cost of base-metal coinage increasingly impractical. The won itself had been redenominated in 1962 at a rate of 10 hwan to 1 won, which meant this unit entered circulation already representing negligible purchasing power — a situation that only worsened across the fourteen-year run of this type.
By the early 1980s, a single won could buy virtually nothing, and the denomination was effectively abandoned in daily commerce well before its official discontinuation.
South Korea's shift to aluminium for this denomination came as the country's rapid industrialization under Park Chung-hee's export-driven economic model made the cost of base-metal coinage increasingly impractical. The won itself had been redenominated in 1962 at a rate of 10 hwan to 1 won, which meant this unit entered circulation already representing negligible purchasing power — a situation that only worsened across the fourteen-year run of this type.
By the early 1980s, a single won could buy virtually nothing, and the denomination was effectively abandoned in daily commerce well before its official discontinuation.