"Found While Playing Sulrae Japgi"...Surprised by the Real Bank of Korea Money Bundle

News of Advanced Studies by Prospective Middle School Students in Songpa-gu, Seoul
Bank of Korea Commemorative Coin Found and Taken to Police Station

It was reported that prospective middle school students who were playing together found a bundle of banknotes on the street and brought it to the local police station as a good deed. According to the police on the 31st, at around 4:40 p.m. on the 28th, four students who had just graduated from elementary school visited the Bangi Police Substation in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and handed over 45 bundles of 1,000 won bills.

[Image source=Hankyoreh]

At the time, Bok Jae-hyeong (13) said, "While playing 'Police and Thief' (tag) with my friends, we were running around and saw something in the villa flowerbed, so we checked it out and saw that it said 'Bank of Korea' on the outside." He added, "When we opened it, there were banknotes inside, and when I told my friends, they said we should take it to the police station, so we brought it here (to the substation)."

The bundle of money the students handed over consisted of 45 sheets of 1,000 won bills, printed in a connected form with 5 sheets horizontally and 9 sheets vertically. This is a 'sheet banknote' officially issued by the Bank of Korea. When cut into individual sheets, they can be used in transactions like regular 1,000 won bills and function as real currency worth 45,000 won. These commemorative banknotes are mainly sold for collection purposes, and the 1,000 won sheet banknotes are traded among collectors for around 100,000 won.

The Bank of Korea has also donated proceeds from auctions held when issuing sheet banknotes. In the 2011 auction of 1,000 won notes, a connected pair of banknotes (with a face value of 2,000 won) was sold for around 3.8 million won. In 2023, connected 5,000 won and 10,000 won banknotes can currently be purchased from the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation.

After confirming that these were commemorative banknotes, the police registered them as lost property and transferred them to the Songpa Police Station in Seoul. If the owner does not claim the banknotes within six months, ownership will be transferred to Bok, who first found the lost property, in accordance with civil law and the Lost Property Act.