A famous urban legend in Korea is that due to a mistake during minting, the 1974 10 won coin contains significant amounts of gold. Even to this day Koreans often look at the date on their shiny brass 10 wons (ship wons)in their small change to check the dates.

Due to inflation, the 10 won coin is otherwise virtually valuless, - except perhaps by collecting several you can buy a single piece of candy - and like so many lowest denomination coins in the world, they have a greater value as scrap metal alloys - by weight - than their assigned face value as currency.