Currency Museum of Korea

The press between a casting mould and a modern coin

A heavy coin-striking press sits among the objects in Daejeon's Currency Museum. It connects the cast coins of Korean dynasties with the standardized metal pieces produced by modern machinery. Upstairs, visitors can test the anti-counterfeit features of a giant 50,000-won note and see how cotton fibre becomes paper money

The museum is run by the Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corporation, usually known as KOMSCO. The point is manufacturing: what does it take to create something that can circulate as trustworthy money? KOMSCO opened the museum on 22 June 1988 to explain Korea's currency through actual production equipment and historical money. Its four permanent exhibition rooms occupy two storeys within Daedeok's research district

In the ground-floor coin hall, early Chinese spade money sits alongside Korea's Goryeo-period Geonwon Jungbo, one of the country's earliest surviving coin types. Joseon copper Sangpyeong Tongbo and examples of the moulds used for traditional casting show how money once emerged from molten metal rather than a mechanical press. The change is physical: cast metal filled a mould, while the modern striking press forced designs into precisely prepared blanks

The surviving modern coin press, a registered cultural heritage object, belongs to the transition toward industrial manufacture. Nearby are Daedong silver coins, imperial-era twenty-won gold pieces, early Bank of Korea issues and commemorative coins made for the Olympics and the World Cup. A 30,000-won coin commemorating the 2002 World Cup won a Mint Directors Conference design distinction. Medals and collectors' editions here were not all everyday circulating currency

KOMSCO once described guide Gu Yeong-gwan asking visiting schoolchildren why some coins have ridged edges. They took out their own change to inspect the metal, finding an anti-tampering detail in something familiar

A banknote is engineered paper

The same need for manufacturing precision moves from pressed metal to special paper. The second-floor banknote hall begins with the one-won note of Japan's Dai-Ichi Bank in 1902 and continues through Bank of Joseon, earlier Bank of Korea notes and the republic's later issues. The sequence makes institutional shifts visible in printed names and denominations, not just in a history timeline. A North Korean hundred-won note and Zimbabwe's hundred-trillion-dollar note show different ways that a banknote can carry political and economic meaning

Paper money is not printed on ordinary office paper. The museum shows how cotton-based banknote material is manufactured, how a watermark is embedded during production, and how printing adds details that can be checked when a note changes hands. A papermaking-machine model and an intaglio press explain successive stages. Intaglio printing forces ink into recessed engraved lines, producing a tactile raised effect on the finished note; watermarks are created in the substrate itself, before the ink arrives

The next room turns the visitor into a banknote examiner. Beside comparisons of genuine and counterfeit notes, a greatly enlarged 50,000-won bill labels security elements that are hard to notice at wallet scale. A checking device lets visitors inspect authenticity rather than merely read a warning about counterfeiting

Security printing goes beyond cash

The fourth hall collects the products that can be mistaken for a miscellany: postage stamps, Christmas seals, official medals, cheques, certificates and passports. They share a production problem with banknotes. A passport or identification document is trusted because its printing and protective features are difficult to reproduce illicitly; an award medal must also have a recognisable official identity

The Mugunghwa Grand Order, shown as full ceremonial regalia, sits alongside sporting medals; another display compares currency from 72 countries. A coin's design, a passport's marks and a ceremonial order therefore reflect different public uses of a manufacturer's precision and security. The museum displays about 4,000 items at a time from a much larger collection; its permanent rooms cover these distinct categories, while the small special exhibition gallery can change

Before you go

Entry and car parking are free. The museum opens from 10:00 to 17:00, Tuesday through Sunday, and closes Mondays, January 1 and the Seollal and Chuseok holiday periods. Individuals and families may enter without booking. Groups of ten or more must reserve in advance—ideally at least two days before visiting. The KOMSCO site recommends arriving by 16:00 to leave time for the galleries

The address is 80-67 Gwahak-ro in Yuseong-gu, on the Daedeok Research Complex side of Daejeon. The campus is set back from the main roads near the National Science Museum area, so the last stretch is less obvious than a museum directly outside a metro exit. From Government Complex Daejeon Station (Daejeon Metro Line 1), Exit 3, bus 604 goes to Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (원자력안전기술원), followed by roughly ten minutes on foot. Buses 301 and 318 reach Expo Science Park, likewise around ten minutes' walk. The museum faces the east gate of KAIST; confirm real-time bus service before travel because the operator's posted directions have not been updated recently. Wheelchairs, a lift and a limited number of strollers are available. A mobile Shakecon audio service is offered on supported Android devices, but an English narration is not guaranteed