A History of South Korean "Won" coins (1966-present)

After much work researching and translating from Korean sources, I have created a webpage on the history of South Korean "Won" coins. Take a look:

http://www.dokdo-research.com/koreancoins.html

I think this is probably the only English-language source of information on the design and production of these coins on the internet...and probably anywhere else!

For those of you who collect South Korea, perhaps this will be of some interest to you.
Let me know what you think!
Mark

 

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Looks mighty good.

 

Thank you for providing this very informative resource on South Korean coinage.

Gary

 

I lived in Korea from 1986 to 1991 and collected many South (and North) Korean coins. At the time, the 100 won coin was worth 12.5¢ and was the same size and weight as the US quarter. I never did it myself, but I understand they worked quite well as quarters in US vending machines. :whistle:

When I first arrived in country (about 10 days before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster), you could still buy things with 5 won and get 1 won coins in change. When I left, the 100 won coin was the smallest coin in circulation.

That's why I don't know why we have such a problem getting rid of our 1¢, 5¢, and 10¢ coins.

 

Because then people couldn't use the old advertising trick of .95 or .99 cents after a dollar amount. =)

PS: 1980's Dominican Republic quarters are also the same size and weight as US quarters. In the mid 90's you could get like 40 of them for one dollar. :taped-shut:

 

Outstanding job.

 

Quite interesting. I'm quite puzzled to see the mintage of the 1999 5 won at just 8000. Was pretty sure it was at 10,000 unless I got the figures wrong. At the same time, I'm surprised that the die work was contracted out to Osaka Mint whereas some of the early gold and silver coins were contracted out to Paris mint. Early Hwan coins were contracted out to US mints. Makes you wonder about the part of Osaka mint when it was a time Korea and Japan were absolute bitter enemies.

 

Good to hear from you, gxseries! I was going by the number of 1999 mint sets that were made for that 1999 5 Won coin (which is 8,000). I THINK they only produced the 5 Won coin for that set. I'll check the population size from both my Krause and Daewonsa books to make sure. It might be 10,000, like the 1995, 1996, 1997. Thanks for pointing that out.

The master dies for the first series of coins (1966) were done in London by the John Pinches Mint. They also made the working dies for the Koreans, too. The 100 and 50 Won coins' master dies were done by the Osaka Mint, but the Koreans were able to make the working dies themselves.

I think "absolute bitter enemies" is maybe a bit of an exaggeration: The ROK and Japan signed a treaty of recognition and exchanged embassies in 1965, and relations, on a government-to-government level (outside of some serious disagreements and "episodes") were actually not too bad at all. Requesting master dies from Japan was just one example of the kind of economic cooperation that was going on after the treaty was signed. Japanese companies shared technology, such as car and engine designs, with the Koreans. The USA encouraged this, of course, too. Also, there were plenty of people in the Korean government and business who worked under the Japanese in the past. Indeed, the ROK president himself was a graduate of the Manchurian Military Academy and served in the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Jilin Province in China, hunting down a certain pesky (but not too dangerous) guerilla fighter by the name of Kim Il-sung(!) So perhaps the Koreans knew a little bit better about how Japanese systems worked, compared to say, the American or British way of doing things. Also the Japanese had to completely rebuild their industry after the Pacific War, and the Koreans wanted to learn how do the same thing after their civil war.

I might make some additions to that webpage.

 

Thank you very much for the link and all the work you did.

I'm far more interested in knowing what coins are actually circulating in Korea and the disposition of the coins that are obsolete. I'm interested in the average and typical condition of the circulating coins. It's so very difficult for we modern collectors to get any information at all about what's out there and what isn't. Sometimes the first I know a coin is rare is when it suddenly gets listed by Krause for hundreds of dollars. I only know what I can find and what I can't and a few things that can't be found are not especially rare. Chance does play a small role in what one sees. Also newer coins are often common and never seen in the US. I just don't see post-1990 Korean coins much.

I collect all the post WW II Korean coinage but especially the circulating coins in Unc. I prefer chU or Gems but any unc will do when they are rare.

Your collections on the link are simply spectacular. They may be unmatched anywhere.

Congratulations on the completion and quality of these sets. I'm sure they all represent a great deal of effort. ...Maybe even more effort than I have in my clad quarter set.

 

Well, cladking, I think you just found for me my next research project!

Yes, I'd like to know what happened to all those 1 and 5 Won coins; and nowadays, what's happening to the bronze and brass 10 Won coins, because I've noticed that they seem to be disappearing from my change on my visits to Seoul in the summer. When I do get 10 Won coins, they're almost always those little fourth series copper-coated aluminum coins. Were they culled and melted and/or scrapped? This is something I have to first ask the Bank of Korea's Public Information Office. They aren't very good at finding answers for a guy, but I'll try. The Korean mint, KOMSCO, is even less communicative for some reason.

I'll look into this for sure...

 

You DID NOT get it wrong! I checked my Daewonsa catalogue: The population IS 10,000, but only 8,000 mint sets were made. SO: 2,000 of those 1999 5 Won coins are somewhere(?), but not in mint sets!

Good call. I'll make the fix.
Thanks!

 

I did forget to compliment mlov43's site (how embrassing) - it's really well done and I don't think any other sites will exceed it even if it's in Korean.

Here's a couple of questions that I never had the time or resources to have answered:

1) With regards to South Korea's coin die alignment, circulated coins have always been struck in die alignment. How would you explain some commemorative coins that were struck in medal alignment? Not too sure if all commemorative coins were struck in such.

2) With regards to the 'pattern' 5 won, how does it end up to be the new coin design for the new 50 won? Was it because they decided to keep on using the old 50 hwan design and pushed the trial design to the newer 50 won coin? Any trial designs known for the 100 and 500 won?

 

Well, I think that the die-versus-medal alignment issue is addressed in the Korean-language source that I found for this website. I'll check it and get back to you.

As far as the 'pattern' 5 won is concerned, there were many more pattern (die trial) coins made than just the rice stalk. They also struck 5 Won die trials with the Rose of Sharon flower (Mugunghwa) and the Chomsongdae observatory on them, too. I think in the end, the Bank of Korea (or Monetary Admin Committee) decided to maintain the old 10Hwan and 50Hwan designs as those coins HAD BEEN circulating at 1Won and 5Won previously; so in order to not confuse the public(?) they decided to keep them on the new Won coins. Actually, I really don't know. That's my guess. My Korean source does not specify why the designs were maintained. I think the rice-stalk design was one that the Koreans had been considering for their coins since at least 1965, and with the FAO program in place by 1970, perhaps they decided to finally use the design on the 50Won coin.

Good Questions from you and cladking. Excuse me while I go do some homework now!

 

Hey Cladking,

I just made a change to my site: Under the video of the 10 Won collection, I put a comparison chart of the Krause and Korean prices for 2011.
I hope this helps you somewhat. Be advised, the actual prices that sellers realize when making a sale in Korea are often a little below the listed Korean prices. That's my experience anyway. What I've noticed is that the Krause books from about 7 years ago and earlier were listing SK coins at old, LOW LOW prices compared to the Korean Daewonsa catalogue. It seems that they've recently woken up to the fact that they were selling on the internet for much higher prices(!), or maybe they caught wind of what prices these coins were going for in Korea. Maybe that explains the sudden price rises.

As far as finding out what happened to the obsolete coins (1Won, 5Won), that shouldn't be too hard, but I just need the Bank of Korea or KOMSCO to reply to me. They SHOULD have that info. What I've noticed is that it's harder and harder to find the old (1966-2006) copper-based 10 Won coins in my change anymore in Korea when I go there every year. I have a feeling that they are being withdrawn and stored, possibly even melted. When I find out, I'll post it here at CT.

Finding out the general condition of circulation coins and current conditions is going to be tough. I don't think that even Korean sources know that...
I'll see what I can find out...

 

ive never seen south korean coins. i do have about 5-6 south korean bills from the mid 1950s, and i could never find any info on them -_-

 

Great looking start you got going. WTG!!

 

Well, if you'd like, I can give you some basic information on them, and I can show you the Korean prices for them, too.

 

Hello I have a 1966 won 5 coin and I wanted to know what is the value of this coin?

 

Depends on the condition Asya. In UNC condition, it can be towards 100+USD. In circulated condition, it can be worth just a couple of dollars. Photos are important.

 

I have a 1966 North Korea 5 won, I want to know what is the value of this coin.