The coin I am talking about it here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250164354627&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=015 The listing shows this a s 2002 1 won brass proof from N. Korea KM#177a. As far as I can tell, according to numismaster.com, there was a 2000 silver proof, KM#177 from N. Korea. From looking at images of the two coins, On "side" is the same, while the other differs. According to numismaster.com on the 2000 proof, the obverse is a bird, while the reverse is the buddha statue, with the denomination beneath. On the 2002 the buddha statue appears to be the obverse except there is no denomination, and there is some sort of temple as the reverse, with what I think is the denomination. I don't read Korean so I cannot tell if there is a date. The differences between the coins make me wonder. I'm new to using KM# but I thought that if the number was the same, with a letter after it, it was the same coin, different materials. Would the numismaster.com site not have a KM# that would be listed in a book? I do not have my books yet, they are on order, so I cannot check. Thanks for the help! David Edit: Here is another coin on eBay:http://cgi.ebay.com/N-KOREA-BUDDHIS...oryZ4185QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem This coin is identical to the one listed above, the supposed KM#177a, except this has the year 2001 in roman numerals under the "denomination" in korean Another Edit: Looking on Numismaster.com I found the reverse of this coin, on other coins, it seems to be a common reverse of some sort. It's used several times form 1989 to 2001, on silver, brass and aluminum.
David, I found similar results in my 2006 Krause. Same obverse, but no Buddha. No listing number KM# 177. It's coming from China, so that makes me doubly suspicious.
The N Korea KM 177 is a 5 Won coin not a 1 Won. So they are wrong there. There is no 1 Won listed in the latest editions of the books with a Buddha on them. As for the "common reverse" there appear to be at least four different versions of this "common reverse" used in 2000, none of the are exact matches for the coin in the first auction. They used at least three versions of the reverse in 2001 and only one version had the 2001 date on that side. And on that one the date is always above the denomination, never below it as appears on the second eBay coin. Also it appears that they ONLY design that they use on more than one denomination is the one they use for their zodiac calender coins (year of the horse, year of the rat, year of the snake etc) With those strikes against it I would say that both of them are fantasy pieces. I don't call them counterfeits because there is no matching genuine coin to be a counterfeit of.
Unfortunately it seems an awful amount of these coins are minted in China and there are some allegations that fantasy coins are being produced.
