Volume of damaged banknotes dips in H1 amid pandemic

Both volume and face value of damaged banknotes found in South Korea dipped in the first half of this year as people used cash less amid a non-contact consumption trend due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the central bank said Friday.

In the January-June period, the face value of damaged banknotes discarded by the Bank of Korea came to 1.03 trillion won ($890 million), compared with 2.69 trillion won for the same period last year, according to the BOK.

The volume of damaged banknotes also plunged 36 percent to 178 million bills in the first half, the BOK said.

The combined face value of damaged coins only came to 4.6 billion won.

Out of the total, 798.6 billion won worth of 10,000 won bills were disposed of in the six-month period, with damaged 50,000 won notes valued at 97.7 billion won. (Yonhap)