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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gxseries, post: 2587869, member: 4373&quot;]I&#039;m still investigating the history of this particular coin as the only sources that I can find are quite recent. Krause does mention two types, one of Korean and the other as Japanese origin. Apparently there are claims that there are official Japanese &#039;counterfeits&#039;. I personally struggle to believe this until I find more references. </p><p><br /></p><p>To make this very difficult, this is the year where there&#039;s varieties for all coins. 5 fun coins are known for three different varieties and 1 yang coin for two. To my research, this number could vary depending on how people perceive it. As for 1/4 yang, I reckon there&#039;s at least two different types of genuine examples. </p><p><br /></p><p>Large variety. This is the common type or rather this is perceived as a genuine example. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://omnicoin.com/coins/996211.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Small variety. I personally believe this is genuine example that was struck in Korea as the style matches the 1 yang type. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://omnicoin.com/coins/1000559.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>And now to mess things up, here are more</p><p><br /></p><p>Extra large variety (yes I just had to make that up...)</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://omnicoin.com/coins/931437.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Counterfeit #1 - you can see the calligraphy is different</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://omnicoin.com/coins/996210.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Counterfeit #2 - now this is pretty bad. The dragon scale looks more like some fish</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://omnicoin.com/coins/1003341.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Now, to explain why this mess could have occurred, there is a need to understand what happened back then. Korea at that time was a Japanese protectorate and was under some coinage revolution. Mind you, Korea was still using copper alloy cast coins and to change to machine struck coins is no easy feat. All technology including planchets were imported from Japan. In fact, while coins were first struck in 1892, they were only released to the public in 1894. </p><p><br /></p><p>While the initial reception to most coins were quite welcoming, nickel copper coins however were never taken too kindly. This goes further back to Korean Joseon dynasty where mints cast coins in low quality copper alloy and made huge profits off it at the expense of the public. In the late 1890s, nickel prices started to fall. This did not help the public&#039;s image and it soon became worse when floods of them appeared. In an attempt to fix this issue, all coins were no longer struck in Korea and were shipped from Osaka Mint, Japan. </p><p><br /></p><p>However, I suspect counterfeiters targeted this year as it seemed like there was a lot of varieties of this type. As of why no other years were used, I honestly do not know. It is certain that the public reception of this coin kept getting worse as in 1909, it became the first coin to be demonetized. The falling price of nickel and the lack of faith from the public led to this coin&#039;s demise. The public immediately deposited most of their 1/4 yang and 5 chon coins to the banks. Supposedly more than 20 million coins of just this particular type went to the bank coffers. Osaka Mint was still busy striking 5 chon coins in 1909 but when the issue of such coins became an issue, most of the 1909 5 chon coins were immediately melted down. (hence being rare). </p><p><br /></p><p>So, to answer your question, I&#039;m dead certain this is a contemporary counterfeit. A long winded way to answer the question but I felt it was needed to explain the complex history behind it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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