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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;franzlflorin, post: 6406129, member: 118340&quot;]Hello everyone, new to the forum here. I think it&#039;s worth noting that 朝鮮 literally means Joseon, not Korea. The Kingdom of Joseon ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392-1897, after which the Korean Empire was proclaimed. The designator 大朝鮮 (Great Joseon) did, however, exist prior to the 1890&#039;s. Per Korean Wikipedia: </p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>&quot;조선은 공식 명칭으로 대조선국(大朝鮮國) 또는 조선국(朝鮮國)이라 하였으며, 주로 대조선국을 <a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%96%B4%EB%B3%B4" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%96%B4%EB%B3%B4" rel="nofollow">어보</a>(御寶), <a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B5%AD%EC%84%9C" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B5%AD%EC%84%9C" rel="nofollow">국서</a>(國書) 등에 사용하였다&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Translated: &quot;Joseon was formally named &#039;Great Joseon Country&#039; (大朝鮮國) and also &#039;Joseon Country&#039; (朝鮮國), with the use of &#039;Great Joseon Country&#039; more common on official seals of the king/queen and national documents.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Because Joseon coinage prior to the first western-style test strikes in the 1880&#039;s was all cash coin-based, there was never any need for the words &quot;朝鮮&quot; or &quot;大朝鮮&quot; to be included in designs. The rare &quot;Joseon Tongbo&quot; (朝鮮通寶) cash coins presumably only used 朝鮮 because of space constrictions (only 4 characters on the obverse of a cash coin given the square hole).</p><p><br /></p><p>However, those aforementioned western-style test strikes in the 1880&#039;s and the subsequent circulation strikes began using 大朝鮮, presumably because this was technically the official name for the country. The earlier mentioned Yuan Shikai reason for removal of the &quot;Great&quot; 大 is correct. Per <a href="http://contents.history.go.kr/front/km/print.do?levelId=km_008_0050_0020_0010&amp;whereStr=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://contents.history.go.kr/front/km/print.do?levelId=km_008_0050_0020_0010&amp;whereStr=" rel="nofollow">this</a> doc from the Nat&#039;l Institute of Korean History, when discussing the 5 Yang issues: </p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>&quot;뒷면에 ‘대조선 개국 501년’을 발행 연도로 넣었다. 그러나 위안 스카이(袁世凱)가 큰 대(大) 자를 없앨 것을 요구하여 1893년 이후 주조한 화폐에서는 ‘조선 개국 502년’으로 바뀌었다.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Translated: &quot;The reverse had the date &#039;Great Joseon Gae-guk 501.&#039; However, Yuan Shikai requested the &#039;Great&#039; (大) to be removed, so beginning in 1893 the date was changed to &#039;Joseon Gae-guk 502.&#039;&quot;</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=kschan82&amp;logNo=50007046325&amp;parentCategoryNo=&amp;categoryNo=35&amp;viewDate=&amp;isShowPopularPosts=false&amp;from=postView" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=kschan82&amp;logNo=50007046325&amp;parentCategoryNo=&amp;categoryNo=35&amp;viewDate=&amp;isShowPopularPosts=false&amp;from=postView" rel="nofollow">This blogpost</a> goes even further with regards to the Yuan Shikai explanation: </p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>&quot;조선이 독립국이란 것을 인정할 수 없고 황제국도 아니니 국호에서 ‘大’자를 빼라는 것이지요. 할 수 없이 조선이라는 국호를 사용하다가 간섭이 뜸해지면 다시 대조선이라는 국호를 쓰곤 하였지요”</p><p><br /></p><p>Tr: &quot;[Yuan Shikai] refused to acknowledge that Joseon was an independent nation and argued that since it wasn&#039;t even an empire, the &#039;Great&#039; should be removed. Joseon had no choice but to stick with simply &#039;Joseon,&#039; then return to &#039;Great Joseon&#039; once the controversy had died down.</p><p><br /></p></blockquote><p>It&#039;s already been mentioned, but it&#039;s interesting that the dates that &quot;Great Joseon&quot; reappears seem to coincide with the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. <a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces35114.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces35114.html" rel="nofollow">KM 1106</a> uses &quot;Great Joseon&quot; and was minted first in 1892, halted for several years and resumed in 1896; <a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21041.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21041.html" rel="nofollow">KM 1107</a> with &quot;Joseon&quot; between 1893 and 1896; <a href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15828.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15828.html" rel="nofollow">KM 1108</a> with &quot;Great Joseon&quot; in 1895-1896. Given the internal political strife and external pressure that Joseon faced in these last few years, as well as the growing power vacuum in East Asia, the re-inclusion of &quot;Great&quot; makes sense.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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