[THE INVESTOR] The volume of damaged banknotes and their face value in the first half of the year decreased from six months earlier, the central bank said on July 11.

Over the January-June period, the face value of damaged banknotes exchanged at local banks, including the Bank of Korea, stood at 1.51 trillion won (US$1.31 billion), 8.8 percent decreased from the second half of 2015, according to the BOK.

They will still cost tens of billions of won to be replaced, one of the reasons for the central bank‘s ongoing feasibility study on a coinless society.

In 2015 alone, the central bank spent 56.3 billion won to replace damaged banknotes. Those found in the first half of the year are expected to cost 21.9 billion won, it said.

The central bank says it is not considering a move toward a cashless society, and not just a coinless society, though many of its officials acknowledge the country is already moving in that direction due to an increase in the use of mobile and Internet-based payment methods, such as credit cards and electronic cash.

In the first half, damaged bills accounted for 99.9 percent of the total, in terms of facial value, while the combined face value of damaged coins only came to 900 million won.

In 2015, the BOK spent 54 billion won to supply new coins.

Fresh bills cost an additional 90 billion won.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)