10 Won

These notes were issued by Soviet military authorities immediately following their entry into the Korean peninsula in August 1945, functioning as occupation currency to requisition local goods without depleting Soviet hard currency reserves. The printing date of 30 April 1945 predates the Soviet declaration of war against Japan by over three months — the notes were prepared in advance, a logistical detail that says something about how thoroughly the occupation was planned before it began.

Technically issued by the Red Army Command rather than any Korean or Soviet banking institution, the series has no formal central bank backing. Inflation followed quickly as the notes were produced without restraint and fed into a local economy already under severe wartime strain.