Two different fates for the same bread

Joo Jung-wan
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

I visited the Gwangjang Market in Jongno District, central Seoul, a while ago. At the entrance from the Cheonggyecheon Stream to the traditional market famous for its street food extravaganza, there was a peculiar-looking bread being sold. It was “10-won” ($0.01) bread, or the coin-look-alike pastry that reached Seoul after it became a regional specialty in the historical city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang.

One side of the bread features the Seokgatap — a national-treasure pagoda within the ancient city’s iconic Bulguk Temple — just like the real coin, with the number 10 and the print year 1966 on the other side. The copper 10-won coin was first minted by the Bank of Korea in 1966. It was amusing to see the coin, rarely used these days, in bread form. When I was young, the coin was enough to buy rice puffs and other cheap street snacks.

The snack today is sold at 3,000 won. The dough is cooked on the spot with a fragrant cheese pudding inside tempting passersby. The Gwangjang Market featured in Netflix documentary “Street Food” has become a popular destination in Seoul for foreign tourists. Eating the coin pastry could be a unique experience for foreigners visiting the market or Gyeongju.

But the bread may be ousted soon. The Bank of Korea (BOK), which has the property right to the coin design, wants it out. In a press release last month, the central bank said it cannot permit the for-profit use of its own monetary design. Under current regulations, the monetary design can only be used for public or nonprofit purposes. The bank said it is in talks with vendors to change the design if they wish to continue selling the bread. The bank added that the bread cannot be sold with its current design.

The issue was covered by a Japanese newspaper. The Nishi Nippon, a regional paper based in Fukuoka City in northern Kyushu, published an article about the doom of the 10-won bread in Korea. It reported that the production of the bread popular among foreigners has become controversial in Korea. The paper added that President Yoon Suk Yeol took a photo eating the bread while on a campaign stop in Gyeongju in September 2021.

The newspaper reported that the 10-yen coin bread is now gaining popularity in Japan. A bakery mimicking the Korean pastry debuted its own yen pastry in Tokyo in October last year and is adding locations in Oksaka and elsewhere. The Japanese Ministry of Finance did not find any problem with the bread looking like a coin.

The paper also admitted that the coin bread originated from Korea. The coin bread can hardly be referred to as an innovation, but the idea inspired by a regional cultural asset was fresh. The 10-yen coin features the Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in Temple, which translates to the Temple of Equality.

The coin breads of the two countries bear cultural assets recognized as Unesco World Heritages. Consumer fun is made by adding extraordinary and amusing experiences to products and contents, becoming a trend in modern consumer behaviors.

However, the response to the “fun” product by government authorities was the opposite. Unlike the Japanese Finance Ministry, the BOK hardly found it fun when reciting its rigid principles and regulations. Strictly speaking, the Bank of Korea Act does not prohibit coin-imitating products. The BOK has written regulations on monetary design since 1999 from concerns that the for-profit use of monetary design could increase the instance of forgery and demean the monetary dignity and confidence.

But the worry over forgery of the smallest-denomination coin is a stretch. Thinking the coin bread that costs 3,000 won a piece could be a counterfeit is laughable. The claim about the bread damaging the monetary dignity and credibility also is not convincing.

The episode exemplifies how Korean regulators relate to a new idea in the market. Unless the new product or service seriously threatens fair competition or consumer rights, its acceptance should be left to the market. Enforcing old regulations without any exception can kill creativity. The BOK may continue to maintain that the bread goes against its rule. But the central bank must think about changing the regulation it made a quarter century ago if it cannot adapt to the changes of the times.