50 000 Won

South Korea's highest-denomination banknote when introduced in 2009, the 50,000 Won took over fifty years to materialize — the Bank of Korea had resisted issuing a note above 10,000 Won since 1973, citing concerns that large-denomination paper would accelerate inflation and enable untraceable cash transactions. The decision to finally proceed came partly from the practical reality that 10,000 Won notes were being bundled in quantities that made everyday high-value payments cumbersome.

Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation in Daejeon handles the full production run domestically, an arrangement that reflects South Korea's mature intaglio printing infrastructure — the country no longer relies on foreign security printers as it did in earlier decades.