The bill in the wallet goes beyond a simple payment method and reflects the spirit of the times that the times are aiming for. This is as a result of the particular person in the forex is the most ceaselessly uncovered to the public. Each nation has chosen financial figures to mirror the spirit of the times, and has additionally changed them when the worth of the times modifications. For the similar purpose, Japan will change the face of the 10,000-yen bill to Eiichi Shibusawa, the “father of Japanese capitalism,” and take away the faces of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, who have been not too long ago engraved on banknotes in Taiwan, in order to resume its dedication to the financial leap ahead in 2024.
Korean banknotes include King Sejong and Shin Saimdang, in addition to Yi Hwang and Lee Yul-gok, who signify the Confucian spirit. From the level of view of the present time when the design was changed greater than 20 years after the present bill got here out, the social and financial setting and the folks’s values have modified considerably from earlier than. It’s time to ask if the character in the forex symbolizes at the moment’s zeitgeist.
The spirit of the times in Korean society at the moment may be summarized as ‘pragmatism’ and ‘science and know-how’. While the worldwide order is being reorganized into a power-based nationwide precedence, it’s an period in which actuality should be confronted and judged based mostly on nationwide pursuits in all areas of diplomacy, safety, and economic system. And at the base of energy is science and know-how. This is why the new authorities has persistently emphasised pragmatism and science and know-how beyond ideology since its inauguration.
There is a lot of debate about trendy and modern characters, however there may be a lot of public consensus about the characters earlier than that. For instance, Jeongjo and Jeong Yak-yong are pragmatism, and Jang Yeong-sil is science and know-how. Jeongjo opened the cultural period of the late Joseon Dynasty by sensible politics that mixed lecturers and know-how throughout troublesome times after the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. Jeong Yak-yong was a consultant pragmatist who sought the “path for prosperity of the people” through the use of Gyeongsechiyong and Lee Yong-saeng. And even figures who embody sensible science for the folks, like Jang Young-sil, can symbolize the spirit of the times.
This spirit of practicality and science and know-how can also be in line with the challenges dealing with Korean society at the moment, comparable to low delivery charge and growing older, local weather disaster, digital transformation, and safety uncertainty. What issues now isn’t summary ideology, however ‘what truly makes folks’s lives higher’. If the character in the forex can seize this spirit of the times, a banknote will have the ability to convey a massive message to society beyond simply a means of payment.
It can also be needed to consider the characters in the coin. Admiral Yi Sun-shin is the most revered determine in the 100 received coin. However, the transition to a “coins-free society” is accelerating, with the issuance of circulating cash suspended from 2025. This is why there may be a dialogue about whether or not Admiral Yi Sun-shin ought to keep solely on vanishing cash or be elevated to a banknote determine.
Currency design modifications usually are not simply design modifications. It is a historic and cultural choice in which a society chooses which characters to recollect and what values to convey to the subsequent technology. At the similar time, additionally it is an financial and technical activity to extend forex belief by strengthening anti-counterfeiting know-how.
Now that sensible outcomes and scientific and technological improvement are wanted in the quickly altering worldwide order and financial setting, it’s time to begin social discussions on how cash will seize this spirit of the times.
[Sung Changhoon, CEO of Korea Minting and Exchange Trading Corporation]