[CLOSED] LordM (& friends) Giveaway #82 (Mark Lovmo Korean Coin reference book)

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No, no, no.
Under no uncertain terms, no.
I will not get off your lawn!

But thank you for your candor revealing your annoyance at everyone's generosity, and therefore your indirect annoyance with me

Or maybe you are directly annoyed by me

 

Well, if it's gold, it won't be "bit" more than $100. I think right now there aren't any South Korean gold coins that don't usually sell for less than $900.

"One representative coin" is a hard one.

I don't know if I'll be very good at this but, here goes:

I always liked this Hangeul Day coin (Hanguel are the Korean alphabetic characters that were developed in the 14th Century under King Sejong the Great).

It's a commemorative coin that won the Mint Directors' Conference (MDC) award in the category of the "Most Technically Advanced Coin." I forgot what year that was in, though (maybe in 2008, when the MDC was in Korea that year?)



I think it's a representative piece since it features the very unique Korean graphophonemic symbols (alphabet) that represent sounds (like the English alphabet) and are not ideographs (sort of like pictures) that Chinese characters are; although Koreans used both in their writing.

The obverse side is an image of an old (made sometime after the 16th century?) Korean round charm piece whose main legends read from:

top to bottom, then right to left



and they read: "Hyo Je Rye Ui" (효뎨례의 in hangeul, or in Chinese characters: 孝悌禮義). These characters mean - Hyo: Filial Piety; Je: Respect one's Elder Brother; Rye: Propriety; Ui: Righteousness.

This is from the "4 Confucian Injunctions and 4 Confucian Virtues."

This coin was meant to commemorate the 560th anniversary of the development of the Hangeul alphabet.

I think this might be my pick for a representative coin for Korea.

If it's a circulation coin, then I'd have to pick the 100-Won coin (KM#9, 1970-1982), as Admiral Yi is a national hero of South Korea in particular, and Korea in general. It is usually familiar to collectors who have even a passing interest in contemporary Asian/Korean coins. It also has a strong graphic presentation of the forward-facing bust of Admiral Yi and a balanced design with the Korean characters on either side of him and the 16 Korean arabesques on the reverse that encircle the denomination numeral and year. This is also the first South Korean coin to forgo Roman lettering in its legends.



Not sure that I'm "right" about any of this, but this is what I got...

 

Oh, there are no "small proof gold" coins at all. If they're small, they're expensive due to their absolute rarity. I think the smallest is the 1,000-Won 1970 "Great South Gate" coin (KM# 14.1, AGW: 0.1120), but that one's part of a very popular commemorative set that goes for big $$. It's sold separately, so check out prices, if you like.

The Admiral Yi coin was issued in proof in both 1982 (2,000 mintage, huge $$ nowadays, so forget it) and 2020 (a lot less, but still $), and graded examples sell for the equivalent of $200 down to $80 for a PF69 in Korea. One is selling at eBay now for $150. The 2020 coin is the newer Second Series design, which I don't like as much, though.

The turtle ship is the one coin I was going to recommend. It was ALWAYS a popular coin among Korean collectors, even when it was in circulation in the 1970s. They can sell for around $100, esp. the 1968 Five-Won in MS-65. Boardwalk Numismatics found a bunch of them and is selling them now at eBay.

 

The turtle ship also shows up on a 1988 Seoul Olympics gold coin. That one's really nice, and it was the first modern Olympic coin to contain one full ounce of gold.

Yeah, the (contemporary) Koreans never made any "fractional gold" coins.

 

So far, so good.

 

It looks like a beautiful, informative book. While I am not entering into this giveaway, I did want to congratulate @mlov43 on the publication and to express my thanks to the rest of you for sponsoring this event.

I mainly focus on US coins, but somehow have managed to snag some world coins, including this Korean won.

I have absolutely no idea how I managed to acquire it, but you can sometimes make interesting finds going through change or hunting through rolls. I do get excited when I find something new and different.

Also, I wanted to just give a shout-out to the various posters to this thread. I have been introduced to some gorgeous coins and have learned some interesting facts. Thanks.

 

The Journal of East Asian Numismatics (JEAN) was nice enough to publish an article of mine that details the book release at the ANA show in August last year. The latest issue of JEAN just came out. Article starts on page 21. Chinese version starts on page 26.

​

 

Mr. masterswimmer.....
Hope this helps.

 

Entry post. I have many older books from different countries, but nothing from South Korea.

 

Entry Post
I was first exposed to general circulation coins from South Korea, and modern mintage is very.. austere. Utilitarian. Later I encountered the coinage from the end of the 19th century, which had much more character. And even later I viewed recent commemoratives, which are quite flashy. Eventually, I managed to get a trip to Seoul through work. Unfortunately, I had no free time while I was there, and could not go exploring, hunting for coin dealers. Perhaps as well, as I was (am) woefully uneducated on Korean coins. This book could be one step in mitigating my ignorance.

 

There you go....time to start expanding, and you will have the perfect reference to do so.
Use it well.
Congratulations.

 

Wow! You guys are great! Thanks to @lordmarcovan for the entry and @mlov43 for the prize. I really appreciate it and will give it a good home in my library.
Can’t wait to read it.

 

PM your shipping address!

 

Done!

and thanks!

 

H8, enjoy this wonderful book. It is truly a treasure trove of information.

I cannot hold back any longer. I was the recipient of a most generous gift of this book by a member here. He was moved by my story of my 1/2 Korean grandsons, and he wanted them to have an autographed copy. @charley , out of the kindness of his heart, had the author, Mark, send a copy to me. Thank you charley for the amazing gift. I hope to be seeing the boys within a few weeks and will present it to them.

 

It arrived today with an extra gift and even though I’ve only had a quick look, this book is beautiful. @mlov43 did an amazing job. It’s 400 pages of coin goodness. Thank you so much! I’m going to really enjoy going through the whole book.