I notice a weakening in the design characteristics from the beginning, to the end, of the First Series 100 Won (1970~1982) and the Second Series 100 Won (1983~date) coins from South Korea. By the end of these series, the main devices on the 100 Won coins appear less sharp. There is an overall softening of the relief engraving of Admiral Yi's bust, almost as if less care was put into the engraving of the master dies. Or perhaps softening the features was an effort to prolong the life of the working dies? Not sure why this happens. Even with the first two coins (top row) both in MS65 (by NGC), you can clearly see design differences, especially in the beard detail. What is happening here? And why?
1974-1975 have different die varieties for the 1970-1982 series 100 Won coins. The 1983 type (small bust) is different from post-1983 types (large bust).
By the way, check this one out: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Korea-1982-...070666?hash=item3f6be4684a:g:u0wAAOSwmLlX60c4
That's what Krause says. But I have no idea about what the "variety/varieties they are referring. I wonder what they are. I've asked. No response. Okay, this is the very first time that I've heard about a "small bust" versus "large bust" types. Where in the world did you get that information?
Okay, this is the very first time that I've heard about a "small bust" versus "large bust" types. Where in the world did you get that information?[/QUOTE] Via NGC / Krause: https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/korea-south-100-won-km-351-1983-cuid-29717-duid-88746 https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...0-won-km-352-1984-2012-cuid-29719-duid-373163
Thanks for that. This is the only source that mentions "large" versus "small" bust design. So THAT'S why Krause has "35.1" and "35.2" for these coins. The Koreans certainly don't. Their numismatic literature cites only one catalogue number for the entire Second Series of the 100 Won coin (1983~date), with no varieties at all.
My gut reaction to your question is that the design was deliberately "eased up" to better suit huge modern mintages. I'm guessing you'd be aware of mintage figures; at what point did they reach the 9-figure quantities (or near them) which would warrant such design consideration?
This link - http://users.scronline.com/lockem/20thcentury.txt - has nothing to do with Korean coins. But I believe it has everything to do with the answer to your questions, as well as with just about anybody else's questions on coins from other countries. If you read what is found there it explains the how's, why's, and when's of design changes for US coins. And in a nutshell the same kind of thing happens at just about any mint. That said, to get down to the nitty gritty answers that you actually want, well, there would have to be somebody willing to put in the work that Mike Locke did to produce that page on design changes of US coins, for the whatever country. And that's kind of the crux of the problem because to my knowledge anyway - nobody ever has. Perhaps you'd be interested in doing one for Korea ?
Here are the mintage figures for this coin from 1978 to 2000. Not sure the mintage figures alone explain this phenomenon:
I guess somewhere along the lines, there must be some tweaking during the minting process. I'm certain that something must have happened with the planchets as the finish differ - the earlier coins look silverish whereas the modern 100 won coins look like they have some chrome like finish. While the composition may have remained the same, I'm certain something must have changed, i.e. the planchets were manufactured to be harder causing the dies to wear out quicker. I also echo the majority's opinion when the mint increased production, it likely caused the quality to fall. I'm also suspecting business tactics also came into play such as "cost cutting", "raising material / labor cost", "cost control" etc. If I recall correctly, this is also the era where South Korea's economy was booming but at the same time also the start of the government attempting to control inflation. 500 won coin was introduced around the same time. Who knows - I'm not an economist or a business minded person so I could be wrong.
Thanks for the link, Doug. That was helpful. From reading Mike's observational data and research on Small Cents, it seems that the U.S. Mint reused hubs, re-worked hubs, and occasionally cut new ones from new plaster engravings, resulting in changes to the overall appearance of the main devices throughout the entire Lincoln series. Things "wear out" and new master dies needed to be manufactured, it seems; and for a series that has been continually minted for a century, that has got to have happened often. So, yeah, I'm sure this happens at a lot of mints worldwide. On the surface, it seems that this same process was happening with these 100 Won coins at the Korean Mint. Yes, I would like to do this same thing for South Korea. Mike has lot more research, or at least information and speculation from other observers, that backs up his observations, as is typical of anything in U.S. coins. There are far many more people looking into the history of minting operations in the USA than anybody doing the same for South Korea. Boy, is that's an understatement! Just simple surveys of raw, observational data on minted pieces seems practically nonexistent for South Korean coins. So, yeah, I guess I can do something while I bide my time before I take the plunge and visit the Korean Mint someday...
Yep. That "chrome" finish with those coins from the 2000s! I gotta figure out what the heck was going on with that... Admiral Yi is practically washed out of the design in the 2009 100 Won coin that I have in my album, looking more like a ghost on the coin. It seems like weak strikes and "buffed" planchets.
I'm suspecting there may be hints available at youtube - I can't type in Korean so I don't know what terms to search for. Gave a random search and this turned up https://www.youtube.com/user/young6621/videos?shelf_id=0&sort=dd&view=0 There's some interesting things on youtube - I've managed to find a Soviet video of Leningrad mint made in 1924!!!
Yep. Seen those before. There's a FULL video of banknote and the same coin production at Komsco, with the audio track sped up to chipmunk the voiceover, here:
