There’s an online signature campaign [Kim Gu Foundation] going on to put independence activist Kim Gu [Wikipedia] on the new high-denomination bills to be printed from late 2008.
The Bank of Korea isn’t talking about who might grace its new bills [Maeil Business News, Korean], which are to include 50,000 won and 100,000 won notes. A survey taken several years ago (when the BOK was considering a redenomination) asked people to consider figures in five categories—politicians, scholars, women, scientists and independence activists. King Sejong the Great took top honor in the politician category, while Dasan Jeong Yak-yong came on top in the scholar category, Sin Saimdang in the women category, Jang Yeong-sil in the scientist category and Kim Gu in the independence activist category.
With the redenomination plan getting scrapped, however, it was decided that the same figures would stay on the old denominations [KTO], but new figures would be needed for newly printed high denomination bills. A recent survey at a women’s portal site overwhelmingly selected Goguryeo king Gwanggaeto the Great as the No. 1 choice:
No. 2 was Sin Saimdang, and No 3 was Kim Gu.
According to the Maeil Business News, some believe King Gwanggaeto’s rise in nothing more than a reflection of heightened interest in Goguryeo history thanks to all the Goguryeo-related TV dramas on TV nowadays. Others, however, believe it important to put the venerable king on a bill to heighten awareness at a time when the Chinese distortion of Goguryeo history is becoming an international issue. In fact, the Ministry of Education’s Northeast Asian History Foundation has already officially proposed to the BOK the use of Gwanggaeto the Great on the 100,000 won bill.
So, who would you suggest get placed on the new bills?
55 Comments
Korean superhero Hines Ward.
Or that speed skater who threw the Taeguki on the rink.
And of course Jun Jihyun.
Kim Gu, by all means; the Yassir Arafat of Korea.
Andre Kim
I’d have to go with Gwanggaeto the Great or Eulji Mundeok. That would stick it to the Chinese since the cultists in Beijing can’t bring themselves to put anyone except Mao on the front of their major bills.
If progressives are in power when this bill comes out: Kim Il-sung
If conservatives are in the Blue House: Park Chung-hee
Yi Sun-shin. I’m surprised no one has suggested that.
Kim Ku looks like a Chinese food deliveryman.
(Dosan) Ahn Chang Ho
i’d have to second the vote on andre kim.
Third vote for andre kim.
No one could forge his hairstyle.
On the 50k bill: Michael Douglas
On the 100k bill: Ice Cube
Andre Kim—of course! Sometimes, the humour ’round this parts is ridiculously sublime.
I’d nominate Kosanja Kim Chŏng-ho, the 19th-century mapmaker in a heartbeat (he of the Taedong Yŏjido, etc.), but I and a handful of weekend hiking-club ajumma/ajeossi afficionado types would probably be the only ones.
Either Jeong Yak-yong (Dasan) or Roy Jones.
Why not Daejanggum?
Kim Gu seems like the logical choice for one of the new bills.
Or JuMong…
Seriously, I’ll vote for Admiral Yi Sun-shin with Turtle ships!
개똥녀 (Dog Poop Girl)
> Yi Sun-shin. I’m surprised no one has suggested that.
He’s already on the 100-won coin, no?
Andre Kim
Harisu
That Gwanggaeto dude with the horns looks cool though…like a real badass
1. Tangun or his Ursine mother.
2. Uljimundok would be interesting considering his ethnic stock being of xianbei, vice korean.
3. Ditto Sperwer on Kim Gu - finger in back of throat!
4. Prince Shotoku
5. Hideyoshi
6. a nekked Sung Hi Lee
7. B.B. Bell
Seriously, my vote would be for Lady Hyegyǒng
Kija.
Sanshinseon wisely noted:
Right you are, sir. I had not considered that.
One more vote to Rev. Dasan.
And how about Danjae 신채호, who was a 열혈청년 ^^.
No way for Danjae. He was the one who cooked up a lot of the Korean nationalism which IMO is the bane of Korean existence - or is it my existence in SK?
Dasan all the way.
This guy.
Or Guus Hiddink.
Shin Saimdang? Do Koreans consider her to be the most important woman in Korean history? I suppose Shilla Queen Seondeok was more significant than Shim Saimdang, but her role in Korean history is still minor; she is notable only for being a woman regent and for the observation tower Cheomseongdae.
What do you mean, peninsular aborigine?
I’m the last person who like nationalists.
Danjae is rather an anatchist.
IMO? International Maritime Organization?
Shin Saimdang may be considered as the model mom to Koreans.
You know it’s the answer of the average Jack and Jane.
They do not deduce their answer through the analystic and comparative assessment like that of me.
Hmmm, Shin Saimdang. Maybe the result of star marketing.
u know, analystic, same etymology as strategery…
How about Empress Myeongseong? That could be interesting, but Japan would probably shred and burn all the bills it could get its hands on.
I hope it’s Kwanggaeto. That way I can selectively tweak certain Koreans by mentioning, “it’s cool that you put a Chinese king on your money – or was he a Japanese subject?”
●~* (#27): IMO = “in my opinion.” There’s also IMHO, which means “in my humble opinion.”
Isn’t Shin Saimdang taught to (elementary?) school students as a model mother, and an example of Confucian virtuous womanhood (or something like that)? Do students still learn about her these days, or is it too old-fashioned now?
Hwang Woo-suk!
Especially when you consider what the friendly neighbors to the North will do once they get their hands on them (churning them out like monopoly money).
Now thats poetic!
But seriously they just need to get it over with and put Dokdo on there, you know thats gonna happen. . . sooner or later
The ajumma who always elbows you out of her way.
McArthur deserves to be the choice. He saved Korea.
objectively, the most likely winner will be Kim Gu or Kwanggaeto.
McArthur has no chance, Ms Shin, no chance.
Kim Gu never targeted civilians.
He is not comparable to ANY terrorist.
Heads of govts ordering assasinations of top generals and the enemy head of state is not something very unusual. What would you call Vladamir Putin?
Yi Soon Shin isn’t on paper money, though.
Lincoln on the penny.
Lincoln on the five.
It’s very interesting that Lincoln looks right, and his coin is brown, whereas everyone else looks left and their coins are silver. Seems like a deliberate effort. These were designed way before the 1964 Civil Rights act in the US. Very plausible. Hey, as long as no one’s asking questions, it goes on and on. I suspect the penny was a deliberate effort, and some white men way back when thought it was hilarious. Racist bigots.
Oh, come on! We’re not all Don Imuses, you know.
Actually, Lincoln was the first president to be honoured on US coins, starting in 1909. The other presidential coin designs came later. There’s a long article about it here: http://www.coinfacts.com/small.....verse.html .
“We” as in white folks, not white Americans specifically, since I’m not an American.
Anyhow, not to say there isn’t racism in Canada and the US—and some pretty ugly instances of it in both countries’ pasts—but your assertion about the Lincoln penny is a stretch and a half.
Yi Sunshin is already on one of the coins.
For the 50k bill, Dosan Ahn Chang-ho.
For the 100k bill, Uljimunduk or King Gwaggaeto. I’d prefer Uljimunduk over King Gwanggaeto.
remember though, even the President of the United States, JFK, referred to blacks as Negroes in the 1960s. It was okay to look down on non-whites, as a given, just only 50 some years ago.
And JFK would have been someone who was trying to help them to a better status.
I’m sure he didn’t see them on par with him, though.
He was what, a New England aristocrat and his grandfather or father an open supporter for Nazi Germany?
All this acceptance of races is only about half a century old.
i think Yi Sun Shin should be on the paper money, even though he is already on a coin.
Baek won isn’t what baek won used to be. Across the globe, cash coins are worth way less than what they used to be worth.
Give Yi Soon Shin a deserved lift on the paper currency.
wjk,
At risk of going off topic “negro” was not originally (and arguably still isn’t) a derogatory term. There is still “The United Negro College Fund” http://www.uncf.org/
“I suspect the penny was a deliberate effort, and some white men way back when thought it was hilarious. Racist bigots.”
I’m sure you believe that ‘Japan changed the spelling of ‘Corea’ for the Olympics’ nonsense.
100,000 won notes?
Isn’t it about time they considered redenomination?
The bills don’t necessarily need people on them, either. Famous buildings will also do.
WJS,
Good idea. While they’re at it, the should also write “Kim Il Song sucks donkeys’ dicks” at the back as a message for the North Koreans who will forge copies of this new note.
On the front of the bill put D.J accepting the Nobel, while free makju is dispensed on the streets of Jongno. On the back, depict riot police getting their melons smashed-in because of the no retaliation order from Dear Leader.
# 27, The reason I don’t want Danjae is that he was an early proponent of the Dangun Myth as being more than myth, the uniquesness of the Korean people as a kind of chosen people, and a von Daaniken-esque interpretation of Korean history.
This is all off the top of my head. If I’m not getting it right, let me know. Take care.
Put Gomer Hyun on the front, Yeonsangun on the back
W100,000 has to be Mimi from Hooker Hill
Thats even better!
I hereby officially nominate: BEE MAN
http://www.reuters.com/news/vi.....deoId=1402
I predict that putting BEE MAN on the baek man won bill will cause a real buzz around the world and will be a stinging rebuke to Japan! Hwighting!
Lee Byung-chul, founder of Samsung on the $10k bill. For the $5k bill, they can put the Samsung logo on it.
Multiply numbers in my last post by x10 for maximum reading pleasure.
WJK said:
Time you read some history, pal. From three more or less mainstream histories picked of the shelf at random:
Andrew Nahm, Korea: Tradition and Transformation (315) -
“The Korean Independence Party [of Kim Ku) carried out terrorist activities against the Japanese. Yi Pong-ch’ang, one of its members, attempted to assassinate the Japanese emperor at the Sakurada Gate in Tokyo, and another member, Yun Pong-gil, threw bobms at the Japanese attending a celebration of the Japanese emperor’s birthday at Hungk’ou Park in Shanghai on April 29, 1932, wounding many prominanent Japanese such as Shigemitsu Mamoru, General Shirakawa Yoshinori, and Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo. Shirakawa and another Japanese died of wounds.”
Ki-Baik Lee, A New History of Korea (365-66):
Whereas the independence movement in Manchuria was carried on mainly through armed resistance, there were those Korean exiles in China who adopted terrorist tactics in their fight against Japan. The best known organizations of this sort were Kim Won-Bong’s Uiyoltan (Righteous Brotherhood) and Kim Ku’s Aeguktan ( Patriots Corps). The bombing and assassination plots carried out by these groups were almost too numerous to count, but the best known are the terrorist attacks on the offices of the Oriental Development Company and other targets in Seoul in 1926 by Na Sok-chu of the Uiyoltan, the attempt to assassinate the Japanese emperor by hand grenade in 1932 by Yi Pong-ch’ang (1908-1932) of the Aeguktan, and the bomb set off by Yun Pong-gil, also a member of the Aeguktan, in Shanghai’s Hung-kuo Park in 1932, killing or wounding a number of high-ranking Japanese military and civil officials.”
Eckert, Lee, Lew, Robinson & Wagner, Korea Old and New: A History:
(324) “The Korean exile movement in China had remained factionalized through the 1930s. Kim Ku trained military forces and organized assassinations and bombings in China and Korea proper.”
And Japanese weren’t Kim Ku’s only targets. He also arranged the assassination of Song Chin-U, editor of the Tonga Ilbo and leader of the Korea Democratic Party in 1945 (351) and is likely to also have been involved in the elimination of the moderate leftist leader Yo Un-hyong.
i recommend paris hilton. Yea. She’s 100% korean you know