Volume of damaged banknotes shrinks in H1

Both the volume and face value of damaged banknotes found in the first half of the year dropped from six months earlier, the central bank said Monday.

In the January-June period, the face value of damaged banknotes exchanged at local banks, including the Bank of Korea, came to 1.51 trillion won ($1.31 billion), down 8.8 percent from the second half of 2015, according to the BOK.

They will still cost tens of billions of won to be replaced, one of the reasons for the central bank's ongoing feasibility study on a coinless society.

In 2015 alone, the central bank spent 56.3 billion won to replace damaged banknotes. Those found in the first half of the year are expected to cost 21.9 billion won, it said.

The central bank says it is not considering a move toward a cashless society, and not just a coinless society, though many of its officials acknowledge the country is already moving in that direction due to an increase in the use of mobile and Internet-based payment methods, such as credit cards and electronic cash.

In the first half, damaged bills accounted for 99.9 percent of the total, in terms of facial value, while the combined face value of damaged coins only came to 900 million won.

In 2015, the BOK spent 54 billion won to supply new coins.

Fresh bills cost an additional 90 billion won. (Yonhap)