CA - Wells Fargo cashier gets Korean politics and currencies confused

Gloria Lara was given some South Korean won by her son after he visited her in California. Mrs Lara took it to a Wells Fargo bank in El Monte.

She has changed won for dollars there before, and Wells Fargo's website states that it's a 'good idea' to buy foreign currency from them, and change it back there too, as the only currency they don't accept is Iraqi dinar. They have a branch in Seoul and it won an award for banking excellence last year.

So Mrs Lara was a little taken aback when the cashier in El Monte asked: "What is it?"

It didn't get any better from there as the cashier then accused South Korea of being a communist country and basically said North and South Korea are the same, with the same currency (it's not. The currencies look very different and the exchange rates are incomparable). I guess memories of the Korean War and its consequences are fading fast as all the US vets dwindle.

Wells Fargo is investigating the misunderstanding.

http://www.koreaobserver.com/wells-fargo-bank-refuse-communist-south-korean-won-26243

I was just going to post that I've encountered the same problem with Scottish banknotes, even in England where they are perfectly legal currency. Looking it up, I find that technically they are not and can be refused at exchangers' discretion. I had no idea!

I owe an apology to several store owners I argued with about this...in more than one country.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_pound_sterling#Bank_of_Scotland_notes