Etymology of the Korean currencies

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Won is the currency of both North and South Korea. Won is a cognate of the Chinese currency unit, yuan and the Japanese currency unit, yen, meaning "round object". The won is subdivided into 100 jeon (전; 錢; McCune-Reischauer: chŏn; Revised Romanization: jeon).

Yang is a former Korean currency. It is a cognate of the Chinese tael (pronounced "liǎng" in Chinese). The yang was subdivided into 100 fun (pronounced "pun" but spelt with an "f" on the coins). Fun (분) is a cognate of the Chinese word fen (分 fēn), referring to 1/100 of a Chinese yuan in modern context.

1 History
2 Use in the Western World
3 Sign and Computing
4 See also

[edit] History

Due to interchanging Chinese and Japanese influences, changing Romanization methods, and the use of both Hanja (Sino-Korean characters) and Hangul scripts, the etymology can be hard to understand. The table below summarizes the language used on the modern circulating and historical Korean currencies.

Period	Subunit				Main unit			Super unit				Note
Period	English	Hanja	Hangul	Ratio	English	Hanja	Hangul	English	Hanja	Hangul	Ratio	Note
1892-1902	fun	分	분	1/100	yang	兩	?	whan	圜	?	5
1902-1910	chon	錢	전	1/100	won	圜	원	None				1 won = 5 yang of the previous period
1902-1945	sen	錢	N/A	1/100	yen	圓	N/A	None				1 yen = 1 won = 5 yang
1902-1945	Due to Japanese occupation, the English transliterations were based on Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters.
North Korea 1945-present	chon	錢	전	1/100	won	圓	원	None				1 won = 1 yen in 1945 1 new won = 1 old won in 1959. Use of Hanja disappeared after 1959
South Korea 1945-1953	chon	錢	전	1/100	won	圓	원	None				1 won = 1 yen
South Korea 1953-1962	chon	錢	전	1/100	hwan	圜	환	None				1 hwan = 100 won of the previos perioud
South Korea 1962-present	jeon	錢	전	1/100	won	圓	원	None				1 won = 10 hwan of the previous period
Bold = what was actually printed on the notes/engraved on the coins

It should be noted that in the brief period when the yang was used, 1 whan/won (圜 = 圓 in Chinese) = 5 yang (兩), while in the Chinese monetary system of that time, 1 yuan (圓) = 0.72 tael (兩).

[edit] Use in the Western World

The word jeon is also used in Korean to translate the word "cent," and in this context is associated with bul (불, 弗), meaning "dollar." (The hanja character resembles the symbol "$".) These two words are used by Koreans living in the Western hemisphere when referring to dollar currencies.