500 Won

South Korea's early post-war note issues were contracted to De La Rue in London largely because domestic printing infrastructure capable of handling intaglio security work simply did not exist yet. This 500 Won belongs to a series issued during a particularly volatile period — the 1962 currency reform, pushed through by the military government of Park Chung-hee, redenominated the hwan at a 10:1 ratio and reintroduced the won as the national unit. The political motive was partly economic stabilization, partly an assertion of the new regime's authority over monetary affairs.

High-denomination notes from this short series are noticeably scarcer in circulated grades, reflecting both the note's purchasing power at the time and the rapid economic changes that led to new series by the late 1960s.