Pay day is fun - especially for those of you who are going to be paid in cash... remember that the highest bill denomination is 50000....(it used to be 10000... how many does it take to get you 1000000.... Love it!) When I made my first million in Korea...
All bills are pretty much equal. It can be good to have a collection of 1000 Won notes for making exact change. 5000 Won notes seem to be less common than the others, but still aren't exactly rare, and the 10000 and 50000 Won notes will be the green that fuels your life. Use them all well, or at least entertainingly. 
Coins come in denominations of 10, 50, 100, and 500 Won, which basically translate into pennies, nickels, dimes, and 50 cent pieces, respectively.
Chances are, like at home, you will end up with a collection of coins scattered about your place (or, if you're an organized sort, a jar or cup full of coins). Coins, however, are most certainly not useless.
- riding transit or taxis (fares are small and giving tips is not common)
- to get a shot of instant coffee from one of the ubiquitous machines that line the streets
- to grab a quick snack from a street vendor
- to make a quick call from a pay phone
- any number of minor purchases you can and will make over the course of a day
- One great thing is that, unlike at home, vending machines take pennies (10 won coins), so it's fairly simple to dispose of those should your collection become too large to handle.
On a side note regarding change, you may have noticed there is no 1 won coin. I have never seen one and I highly doubt they bother minting them and if they do, they certainly don't bother distributing them. They are so worthless, in fact, that banks tend to round up to the nearest 10 won figure when exchanging cash (which can produce some odd money numbers).
All in all, coins are still a bit of a pain, but much easier to get rid of than at home.
One might think that as an alternative to cash, one could use a debit card. Well, you can't. Even once you get a Korean bank account opened up, debit cards are not accepted anywhere other than bank machines.
Another possibility that may have occurred to you is using your credit card. That can be problematic. Sometimes, foreign issued cards are accepted, sometimes they are not. It's usually no problem at larger hotels, chain restaurants (like Bennigan's or TGIFriday's), or at some department stores, but they certainly aren't universally accepted.
Ordering items online to be delivered to you - if you can figure out the address - is generally not a problem, unless it is through a Korean website in which case you will need a Korean credit card and/or a Korean to process the transaction for you. Even then, you may still need to bring the cash to the bank or post office along with an order sheet to finalize the transaction.
Definitely bring your card for such things as ordering books or CD's online or for traveling within or outside Korea (plane tickets, hotels, etc.), but you really won't use it much at all while you're here.
So, in conclusion, money is a pretty simple concept here. You either have cash, or you starve. Things are cheap, so it's pretty easy to have enough cash on hand at all times. It's safe to carry large amounts around, should you need to, but you probably won't.
Guy
Footprints Teacher
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