Eli5 Why do some countries measure their currencies in large units?

Question

For example in Vietnam, lunch can be bought for 50,000 VD and in South Korea, apartments can cost several MILLION Won. Why do some countries use such large denominations?

In: Economics

Answer 1

I get why some countries have such currency units (ultimately inflation). But why don’t they combat that by just removing large sums of cash from circulation? If the value of money is subjective, why can’t/don’t they just progressively remove large numbers of it until the value of a single unit reaches a more reasonable level?