Catalog
1 Yen
| Issuer | Bank of Korea |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
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| Value | 1 Yen |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 韓國銀行 壹圓 일원 號秋 |
| Reverse description | Printed in terracotta-red on a light ground, the reverse carries the English bank title 'THE BANK OF KOREA' across the top, with the obligation text 'Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand' and the denomination 'ONE YEN IN GOLD OR NIPPON GINKO NOTE' in bold letterpress at left. A central oval guilloche watermark space is flanked by arabesque ornaments, with a multi-line Chinese-character legal text panel at lower centre and an official seal cartouche at lower right. Corner numerals '1' appear in all four quadrants. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Korea was established in 1909 under Japanese colonial supervision, effectively displacing the Dai-Han Bank and consolidating Japanese financial control over the peninsula ahead of formal annexation in 1910. This note belongs to that transitional moment — the institution's name was Korean, but the monetary architecture was entirely Japanese. Within a year of issue, the Bank of Korea was renamed the Bank of Chōsen and the political fiction of Korean financial autonomy was abandoned entirely.
Notes from this first 1909 series are genuinely scarce in any condition, having circulated hard through decades of colonial-era commerce.