10 Yang

Korea's first domestically printed government notes, this 10 Yang series of 1893 was produced by the Joseon government's own printing bureau — a deliberate assertion of fiscal independence at a moment when Japanese and Chinese commercial influence over Korean finances was intensifying. The bureau had only recently been established, and the technical limitations showed: ink distribution was inconsistent across the print run, and the paper stock was domestic mulberry paper rather than the more durable European rag stock used by foreign-printed issues of the same period.

Circulation was brief and troubled. Public confidence in paper currency remained weak, and the notes were largely rejected by merchants outside government channels. Surviving examples are rare precisely because so few were accepted into ordinary trade.