Etymology of the Korean currencies Etymology of the Korean currencies The won is the currency of both North and South Korea. "Won" is a cognate of the Chinese currency unit, the yuan, and the Japanese currency unit, the yen, meaning "round object". The won is subdivided into 100 jeon (전; 錢; McCune-Reischauer: "chŏn"; Revised Romanization: "jeon"). Yang is a former Korean currency. It is a cognate of the Chinese tael (pronounced "liǎng" in Chinese). The yang was subdivided into 100 fun (pronounced "pun" but spelt with an "f" on the coins). Fun (푼) is a cognate of the Chinese word fen (分 fēn), referring to
Mina (unit) Mina (unit) The mina (also mĕnē, Aramaic; ) is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight, which was divided into 50 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency. In ancient Greece, it originally equalled 70 drachmae and later was increased to 100 drachmae. The Greek word "mna" () was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew "māneh", Aramaic "mĕnē", Syriac "manyā", Ugaritic "mn", and Akkadian "manū". However, before it was used as currency, a mina was a unit of measurement, equal to . From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents