35 years of Bank of Korea mint sets

Let me know how your purchase request turns out! Have they responded?

 

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No response yet. My email may have ended up in the spam mail - yikes!

I'd send another one, but the same thing will happen.

 

Try to find another contact email on the website somewhere...

I hope he hasn't been turned off by doing business through PayPal. That would be my guess as to why he's not responding. Or the spam box thing...

It's so dang hard to do business with Korea-based coin stores online! I hope this particular avenue hasn't been cut off...

 

Yeah I haven't been able to find another email except for the one you mentioned, kjsat@korea.com, which was at the bottom of the webpage. I may simply be in the owner's spam mail. I'm not sure what else to do, unless there's like a fill-in form on the website to contact the site owner/reps directly (thus not spam).

 

I discussed this topic in general with you before, but now I'm wondering if the same die was used from the "Foreign" or English only language sets, for the regular Korean language sets.

I've seen pics like this on the regular Korean language set, and it makes me wonder... or are the photos playing tricks on me? There appears to be some cameo on the obverse devices, and the reverse devices seem very pronounced, with proof-like fields, but that may just be the lighting + the plastic cover's high reflective surface. Thoughts?

By the way, I was able to place an order for a couple of items on that website (finally!). Thanks for your help on that.

 

Oh! You were able to order something from Mr. Kim at Sujipbank? Nice. Did you do it via paypal, or some other way?

I think that the coins in these (regular) mint sets were specially-handled, if not more carefully struck, up to about 2007. After that, the coins all seem to be just regular coins that dump out of the presses and pile up and bang around in the metal hopper before packaging.

No. There should not be any proof fields on this coin, if its a regular mint set. A very nice one, sure. BUT: It possibly could grade PL, as some coins in a 2005 regular set that I've seen in an NGC multi-holder were graded PL and DPL designations! Check this out:

 

It was via PayPal and I'm unsure if it's from Mr. Kim but it was someone who seemed to be in charge, since we were able to haggle the price and work out the exchange rate, etc.

And, wow, I thought that PL would have been a stretch but I see that some coins received a Deep PL - now that's awesome! Granted, it's the 500 Won coin, which I've seen more commonly with PL qualities than lower denominations. But, it's interesting that the non-"Reverse Proof" year 2005 Korea 5 Won coin received a PL designation. So, I'm having better hopes that a 2004 regular mint set will have at least PL strikes, too. Once I've received the coins in the mail and am satisfied, I think I'll make the purchase of that set.

By the way, do you know if NGC will grade the English only, foreign mint set coins from 2000-2004 as reverse proof? Or, would it be something like a DPL ULTRA CAMEO (if that exists)? I couldn't even find NGC's coin page on the 2000-2004 "reverse proof" strike type.

 

Here's your answer:
It's hard to see, but these are all PF-67, except for the weakly-engraved 100 Won coin, which is PF-65.

 

Here's the 2005 set I received. It's a bit difficult to make out the surface of the coin because the plastic on the mint holder creates a glare. If I were to submit this to NGC, will this come back as a PL? Specifically, for the 5 won turtle ship coin. Or, is it too difficult to tell through the plastic?

To me, looking at the 2005 (mostly) PL set in one of the previous posts, it looks like coins that exhibit a cameo effect, as a shadow lingers over the coin with dark fields and bright devices, are graded as a proof-like strike. It's certainly not definitive, but there's something about that lighting effect that appears to correlate with proof-like strike qualities on otherwise regular business strike coins.

Thanks in advance!

 

It would be too hard for me to tell through the plastic and in pics, but if that 2005 set could get PL and DPL designations, why not yours? That Five Won coin might take a grade hit for the brown spots (doh!), but it is SO common on these brass coins that have stayed in Korea for years. Korea has hot, humid summers, and people there do NOT keep their homes and businesses air conditioned all the time in the summer (South Korea imports practically 100% of its energy!). I think that really has an effect on storage conditions for these coins.

I'm guessing that you'll get PL designations on these coins. Can you do a multi holder? You can if you, or whoever you submit through is a bulk submitter to NGC (a.k.a. coin dealer).