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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mlov43, post: 7760373, member: 16729&quot;]<p style="text-align: center"><b></b></p> <p style="text-align: center"><b>“Specimen” Counter-marked South Korean Coins</b></p><p><br /></p><p>There are the occasional South Korean coin found in the collector market with countermarks in the form of the Korean hangul lettering, “견 양 (<i>kyeon yang</i>),” meaning “specimen.” </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1330353[/ATTACH]</p><p>A number of South Korean coins have appeared in numismatic markets worldwide with these specimen markings ever since these coins were first issued in 1959.&nbsp; The meager literature on the subject of specimen-marked South Korean coins offers a couple of different explanations as to why some of these coins were countermarked.</p><p><br /></p><p>One explanation for the “견 양” counter-marked coins is given in Joseph E. Boling’s 1988 <i>World Coins</i> article in which Boling claims that according to Korean law, the nation’s currency and coins could not be exported to foreign coin collectors without these markings.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another explanation is given in the “Korea-South” listing in the Standard <i>Catalog of World Coins 1901-2000</i>, which states that the counter-marked coins were prepared for government and banking agencies. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have heard from former South Korean engraver and Korean Mint executive, Oh Soonhwan, that the markings indicate that the pieces were produced for official review and that they manifest the government’s final chosen design and specifications for that coin, and is therefore marked “specimen.”</p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1330351[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">This coin is one of the LAST South Korean counter-marked specimens.&nbsp; Issued in 1981, this &quot;Inauguration of the Fifth Republic&quot; commemorative features countermarking that APPEARS to have been struck onto the reverse DIE, not the coin, like all previous specimens.&nbsp; After 1981, South Korean specimen markings appeared in relief as a part of the design, and not just counter-marked with handheld punches (either on the dies or the coins).</font></p><p><br /></p><p>In numismatic markets in the 2010s, specimen-marked Korean coins have often been valued at the equivalent of hundreds of dollars over the price of unmarked coins in the same grades.</p><p><br /></p><p>Regardless of the origin of these countermarked “specimen” coins, it is rather concerning that someone without a specimen-marked coin could solve that problem with the use of a hammer, the two requisite <i>hangeul </i>letter punches, and an unmarked South Korean coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>Authentication, if not a provenance, is recommended for collectors wishing to add South Korean coins countermarked as specimens to their collections.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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