Never seen this curious little Korean coin set before... http://www.ebay.com/itm/162311532629?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT This mint set features all five of the then-circulating coins, and three commemorative coins: The 30th Anniversary of Liberation commemorative (1975) and the two 42nd World Shooting Championships commemoratives (1978). Like many of the South Korean "mint sets" that were issued up to 1981, the layout and design of the case for this set is modeled after Japanese mint sets of the 1970s, right down to the information cards inserted into the inside front and back covers. Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if this set was just kind of "thrown together," perhaps as part of a rush to produce commemorative items for this event. The event itself was the United States' seal of approval that Chun Do-hwan so coveted for his regime. After taking over the government in a rolling coup d'etat the previous year, Chun was in the doghouse with the outgoing Carter Administration over a few things he had done, and the big remaining issue was the death sentence that still hung over opposition politician, Kim Dae-jung. As an incentive to get Chun to commute Kim's sentence, the very first thing that Ronald Reagan ever did as president (January 21, 1981) was to invite "His Excellency" to be the first foreign head of state to visit the Reagan White House. On February 3, 1981, Reagan threw out the carefully crafted suggestions for this meeting that reiterated the political agenda that American diplomats had struggled so hard to advance in Korea, and instead toasted Chun, welcoming him with great flourish. The U.S. Ambassador at the time, Bill Gleysteen, wrote in his memoir, "I felt he [Reagan] was wrong -very wrong- to adopt such an uncritical stance during his first meeting with a man who had seized power in a coup, presided over a brutal suppression of Kwangju citizens, and usurped the presidency of Korea. The words and pictures flashed back to Korea tarnished the image of the United States in Korea, and to the people of Kwangju they reinforced a widespread misperception that we had colluded with Chun's forces. Obviously, this was not President Reagan's intent, but it was an unfortunate by-product of his not wanting to be associated with the outgoing administration."
I think it is interesting that the larger denominations flip like a book, but the lower denominations are like US coinage. Nice write up.
Yes, it seems that they used "medal alignment" for the commems and "coin alignment" for the circulating coins, following similar coin alignments of other countries.
