South Korea's central bank said Wednesday that the face value of damaged banknotes and coins that were destroyed fell 8.2 percent in 2016 from a year earlier.
This photo, provided by the Bank of Korea on Jan. 18, 2017, shows 50,000 won bills -- the highest denomination -- and 10,000 bills damaged by fire. (Yonhap).
The face value of the damaged banknotes and coins exchanged at local banks, including the Bank of Korea, came to 3.11 trillion won ($2.6 billion), compared with 3.39 trillion won in 2015.
The central bank said it spent 46.4 billion won on replacing the damaged banknotes and coins, with new bills and coins.
It said some of the damage was caused by fire. (Yonhap)