You probably wouldn't have, nor won't you ever find such a coin in Korea, unless you come upon such a unicorn there and want to purchase it for over a thousand dollars. Or, you can do what I did, and buy it at eBay for $340 from a Maryland coin store (Bonanza Coins).
Very attractive coin. I don't know anything about Korean coinage. Why is this coin special (besides being attractive and high grade)?
It's a condition rarity. The coining metal used to make the planchets for this 10-Won coin changed from this 88% copper, 12% Zinc composition (called "bronze" by Korean coin collectors) midway through 1970, to a new 65% copper, 35% zinc composition (called "brass" by Korean coin collectors) in order to save money due to a rise in the price of copper that was partly created by demand from the Vietnam War and labor strikes at major U.S. copper producers. Both coins are actually brass; the terms are purely a quirky Korean numismatic jargon that was translated into English. Evidently, you can come upon the "brass" versions in higher condition than you can these "bronze" versions. I have found that to generally be the case, also. There is a color-tone difference between the two, and this one clearly is the "bronze" version. To make it clear that this is the "bronze" version, I am tempted to get it graded at NGC with a "metallurgical analysis" on the information tag in the holder, which is now a nice $75 "upgrade" that was once cited on the tag for free: The TPGs are obviously taking their cues from the airline industry with its fees for a checked bag, water, or oxygen to breathe on the plane. ...but I digress. Long story short, it's a condition rarity. And probably THE most expensive South Korean circulation coin in higher Mint State grades. If I had a coin business in South Korea, I could confidently sell this piece for about $1,400 USD. It might take a while, but it would sell. In the 15 or so years that I have been looking at these, this is in the top two that I have seen. In other words, I'm a lucky motherhubbard...
Very kindly of you. I was pretty stoked to win this one, needless to say! What some collectors of S. Korean coins might think is that the best and largest number of these coins are to be found in Korea. Although by now internet sales may have migrated some of the really best examples to Korea, I STILL believe that most of the highest-grade S. Korean coins from the 1960s reside in collections and inventories outside of Korea, with most of them in the USA. I believe that they were brought to the USA by coin-collecting GIs and other foreign visitors to the country in the 1960s, 1970s, and by businesses in the States that assembled "world coin cards" and sets and whatnot when these coins first came out. In fact, this coin came from a coin-board, maybe an ANCO set(?), that also had a One-Won and Five-Won coin in it. The cardboard smelled like an old library, and it seems obvious to me that the set had probably NEVER been removed from its "shower curtain" clear-plastic slipcover since it was assembled.
