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W350 Million Worth of Coins Fished from Cheonggye Stream Since 2005

Some W350 million worth of coins tossed by people making wishes have been retrieved from Seoul's Cheonggye Stream over the past 11 years (US$1=W1,187).

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A pond on the stream has served as a public wishing well since October 2005.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Sunday that W20.51 million worth of Korean coins were collected in the wishing well's first year. But the amount plunged to W1.38 million in 2007, W4 million in 2008 and W3.43 million in 2009 as people hung on to their change amid the economic slowdown.

In 2010, the city mounted a successful campaign to revive interest in the site, and the coin haul started to rise, with W9.51 million gathered in 2010 and W32.05 million in 2011.

The figure has continued to rise, reaching W61.56 in 2015 and W49.17 million in the first 11 months of this year.

Additionally, 323,000 foreign coins were collected over the 11-year period. All retrieved coins are donated to charity.

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