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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Eidolon, post: 4396190, member: 102103&quot;][USER=4373]@gxseries[/USER]:&nbsp; I&#039;m not sure I follow you.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was speaking of Russian political domination, not the denomination of the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as I know, Korea was a vassal state to Imperial China since ancient times.&nbsp; After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5) with the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Korea became fully independent from China.&nbsp; Japan used its victory against China as a starting point to interfere more and more in Korea.&nbsp; The Korean ruling dynasty was declared an Empire in 1897 to reflect this independence, and to put the royal family on a (nominally) equal footing to the Emperors of China or Japan.</p><p><br /></p><p>Korea turned to Tsarist Russia as a counterweight to Japan in the period between 1895 and 1905.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know all the messy political details, but I believed Japanese agents assassinated the Korean Empress in 1895 as she was too effective in pursuing Korean interests which diverged from Japan&#039;s.&nbsp; There was a huge backlash.</p><p><br /></p><p>I knew about the Russian-influenced Korean coins, and that they were extremely rare (and thus not economically significant).&nbsp; With Russia&#039;s loss in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5), Korea fell strongly under Japanese influence.&nbsp; At the time of the Korean 1/2 Chon coin mentioned earlier (1906), the Korean Emperor was still ruling, at least in name.&nbsp; Japan did not fully annex Korea until 1910, as you mentioned.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for the info on the striking of the coin in Osaka.&nbsp; I suspected they were engraved and minted in Japan, but didn&#039;t know any details.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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