The size of banknotes and cash discarded final yr attributable to harm or contamination reached roughly 2.84 trillion gained. If the discarded foreign money had been stacked upward, it will attain 265 instances the peak of Lotte World Tower.
In response to the 2025 Broken Forex Disposal Scale introduced by the Financial institution of Korea on Jan. 13, broken foreign money disposed of by the BOK final yr was counted at 364.01 million items. In financial phrases, this quantities to 2.84 trillion gained. This represents a lower of 110.88 million items (23.3%) from the earlier yr (474.89 million items, 3.376 trillion gained). Each banknotes and cash had been unified in “piece” models.
The BOK disposes of foreign money when it determines that foreign money collected from circulation is unsuitable attributable to contamination or harm. The BOK defined, “Final yr’s disposal quantity decreased as the general assortment quantity itself declined attributable to elevated foreign money demand ensuing from falling market rates of interest.”
For banknotes, 295.18 million items (2.829 trillion gained) had been disposed of, centered on 10,000 gained and 1,000 gained notes, whereas for cash, 68.82 million items (11.8 billion gained) had been disposed of, centered on 100 gained and 500 gained cash.
Though the disposal quantity decreased, absolutely the scale stays giant. If the disposed quantity had been related end-to-end in particular person items, the full size can be 44,043 km, which might circle the Earth (roughly 40,000 km) with distance to spare, and if stacked layer by layer, the full peak can be 147,017 meters, equal to 17 instances Mount Everest (8,849 meters) or 265 instances Lotte World Tower (555 meters). Moreover, this represents a size that would make roughly 53 spherical journeys on the Gyeongbu Expressway (415 km).
A BOK official said, “Utilizing foreign money cleanly can scale back the prices required for foreign money manufacturing annually,” including, “The BOK plans to constantly pursue ‘clear cash utilization’ promotional actions going ahead.”
