Steps have been taken from time to time by the Foreign Representatives to improve the finances of the country. Upon one occasion seven reforms were recommended, and the report subsequently presented to his Majesty. In the course of an inquiry it transpired that, in addition to nickels which were minted by the Government, there were more than twenty-five separate and distinct brands of nickels then circulating in Korea. Until recent years the counterfeiting of Korean currency has not been remunerative. The old time cash was of such small value, and the combined cost of the metal and work together so nearly equalled the face value of the true token, that the risk was not commensurate with the profit. A single nickel of the present currency, however, is equivalent to twenty-five of the old coinage, and as the net cost of their manufacture is less than a cent and a half a-piece, it will be seen that there is some incentive to the production of false money. The number of counterfeit nickels is rapidly increasing, and permits to coin were at one time freely issued by the Government to private individuals. Nickel is openly imported through the Customs; spurious coins in large quantities are brought by almost every steamer from Japan and smuggled into the country. The Government care only for the profit which they derive from their illegitimate transaction, and, ignoring the permanent injury which they are doing to the solvency of the country, adopt every means to circulate these depreciated coins. Until quite lately the circulation of nickel pieces was confined to the capital and the vicinity of two or three Treaty ports, the old copper cash being current elsewhere. With a view to extending their use, however, the magistrates throughout the Empire were ordered to accept redemption of taxes only in this currency. But as wages are generally paid in the nickel currency, and as the purchasing power of the nickel Korean dollar is less than half it was with copper cash, while the standard of payment remains the same, the bulk of the nation is paid no better than formerly, while the purchasing power of their earnings is infinitely less. There appears no prospect of any immediate improvement, since the Government contracted for the issue of a further forty million nickels. With this accomplished, the face value of the coinage in circulation, as against the Japanese gold yen, will be fourteen million yen, or nearly one million and a half pounds sterling. There is, of course, no gold or silver reserve with which to redeem this gigantic sum. To such a pitch has this condition of affairs attained that in Chemulpo quotations are current for:— (1) Government nickels; (2) First-class counterfeits; (3) Medium counterfeits; and (4) Those passable only after dark.