Early in August the currency of the country received serious attention. Foreign money was in use in the open ports but the general currency of the country consisted of two kinds of perforated “cash,” one called _yŭp_, each piece of which was called one cash, and the other called _tang-o_ or the “five fitter.” These represented five cash each. The _yŭp_ was the old, genuine and universally recognized money of the country. It was only in Seoul, the open ports and on the great thoroughfares near Seoul that the _tang-o_ circulated. This _tang-o_ was a debased coin made in 1883 and several succeeding years. At first each of the _tang-o_ exchanged for five of the _yŭp_ but within a few months the _tang-o_ fell to an inevitable discount which increased year by year from 1883 until 1894, when it was found that they were practically the same. Successive issues of the _yŭp_ had deteriorated the quality and size of the coin until it was worth only a fifth of its face value. For this reason the Government declared in August that the _yŭp_ and the _tang-o_ were on a par and that no distinction should be made between them. The fair thing would have been for the Government to redeem the debased _tang-o_ at its face value but of course no one could expect this under the circumstances. It had proved an indirect tax upon the people equal to four fifths its face value.
At the same time the national financiers determined to place in the hands of the people a foreign style coinage, and soon a one cent copper piece, a nickel five cent piece and silver coins of twenty cent and one dollar denominations, which had been in process of manufacture since 1901, were issued. A few of them had been issued a year or two before but had not been well received. Now they passed current and were used, but it was soon found that the silver coins were being bought up and hoarded by wealthy people who placed no faith in banks, and soon not a single native silver piece could be found anywhere.
It was the intention of the Commission to withdraw from circulation all the old cash and replace it with the foreign style money. How absurd this was will be seen at a glance. There is nothing else that people are so timid about as their money and the bare idea of making such a sweeping change was preposterous, but the Japanese were behind all these reforms and, while their intentions were of the best, they made the serious mistake in this as in other attempted reforms of hurrying things too fast.