What is 48 pounds of Korean coins worth?

I discovered the answer.

Since I arrived in Korea I have been saving my loose coins in plastic water bottles with the tops cut off.

Last night I poured 2.3 bottles worth of coins into some plastic bags, and put them in my backpack. The straps groaned at the weight, so I put the whole thing on the scale to see what it weighed - 48 pounds.

This morning, the backpack seemed on the verge of snapping somewhere (or was that me?), so I took a cab to the KB bank, which has a coin counting machine (a rare thing in Korea). I don't have a bank card with KB, but the 아저씨 at the bank was quite helpful, pulling out his own bank card (or a card the bank gave him for this purpose) and getting the machine running. He was a bit bemused when I pulled out the massive double-bag of coins, but was quite a good sport about it. I fed the machine for about 10 minutes and then it stopped.

I had filled it up as full as it could get! The 아저씨 had to go get someone to open the back of the machine and emtpy its contents. While this process was going on, some poor Korean kid with a baggie full of change showed up. He took one look at my bin full of coins, and the bag of coins still remaining on the top of the machine, smiled ruefully and walked on out of the bank.

The machine went back on line and I finished pouring my coins in.

The haul?

nearly 450,000.00 won.

Of course, since the won knows I am going to the United States it has been tanking ferociously against the dollar. Consequently my haul will convert to about $2.38 in US currency ;-(.

Still, now I know what 48 pounds of coins are worth.