Hey All, I have a few Korean late 19th & early 20th issues. I have the Krause specs on them, but I was wondering if anyone knew some more detail/history about the coins. Thx, Joe Korea - Quarter Yang - 1898 Korea - Quarter Yang - 1898 Korea - 5 Chon - 1905
Not too sure what information you are after but I can provide some general information. I posted this in another forum but decided to copy and paste it. --- There is a story for this. Early Korean nickel copper coins were pretty much unwanted as many people distrusted them for good reasons. Prior to machine struck coinage where cast coins were used in commerce, coins were cast in good quality copper alloy. As time pass, the government decided to make huge profit by melting coins and issue bronze alloy coins with much lower copper content. This has caused a huge uproar and this was understandable as the new coinage was worth much less. New coinage was issued in 1888 and the first nickel copper coin was issued in 1894. (I know, you would say there were coins dated 1892 but they were first issued in 1894). This mistrust in government issued coinage persisted and as the price of nickel fell during the early 1900s, many were quick enough to trade them to the bank as soon as possible. The problem was made worse as a huge supply of contemporary counterfeit was issued dated 1898. Obviously it was cheap for the government to issue such coins but the public had reasons to not like them. This coinage was to be demonetize in 1906. If you are interested, this particular year is home to at least 6+ varieties from what I hear not including counterfeit examples. Here's some examples: Genuine example Small font variety And then two contemporary counterfeit. Note that the dragons look more cartoonish and the characters look more deformed. The above coin is consistent with known contemporary counterfeit. An attempt to reissue nickel copper coin restarted in 1905 and then issued in 1907. Another attempt was made in 1909 but tragedy struck - as soon as these coins were struck, there were orders to demonetize just this particular coin. Others were to be demonetize at later time. This caused a mad rush for these coins to be exchanged at the bank. This explains why 1909 5 chon coins are extremely rare - they literally didn't get to circulate as they were only valid for a couple of months. The official number of such nickel copper coins collected from the public was at a staggering 266.5 million. Whether there were that many coins issued to start off with, these coins were just not loved by the public only to be appreciated a century later. Attempting to assemble a complete set of these coins is a BIG challenge. Coins dated 1894, 1895 (2 character variety), 1897 - 1901 with the exception of 1898 and 1909 are worth big money in ANY condition. In fact, try and look for other years (not including 1898) - you will find them to be difficult. At one stage I was tempted to sell off my duplicates but judging how scarce they were, I decided to keep them.
I forgot to mention that the first two coins are contemporary counterfeits. The 1905 5 chon coin is in a very nice condition.
What are the exact details that make the second 1/4 yang a contemporary counterfeit? I am having a hard time seeing the difference between the second coin and the original strikes you posted. Thx
You can see on the reverse there are some dots in the field. Also if you look closely at the flower or the emblem, the details look too crude. You can compare that to the 1905 5 chon and realize that there's a difference.
I noticed the ring in the flower as well. The flower looks like the Japanese Imperial Chrysanthemum symbol. Were these coins milled under or by the Japanese authorities? Also, is it possible the Russians were behind the counterfeits to try and destabilize the Japanese presence in Korea at that time?
The original coins struck from 1892 - 1902 were struck in Korea under the supervision of Japanese mint officers. (excluding various pattern coins) This was actually requested by the Emperor to ensure that the Korean mints caught up to speed with the latest technology. However it was deemed to be uneconomical to operate three different mints. From 1905 onwards, all coins were struck in Osaka, Japan. As of the origins of the nickel copper coins - I have been struggling to find proper references. Krause noted that these coins were authorized by the Korean government. I have difficulties believing in this as I am trying to find the original source of reference. While there may have been a batch that were struck in Japan and then shipped over to Korea, I suspect the nickel price collapse has made it feasible for counterfeiters to make a fat profit out of it. As of who did it, I don't know. Did the Japanese, Russians or Chinese do it? Possibly. Nevertheless, it is only this particular year that is heavily counterfeited. As of why this year - I suppose this is the year when nickel price collapsed. The Russo-Korean coinage is another different story. A Russo-Korea bank was setup at around 1898. These coins were struck in Korea around 1901 under the authorization of Alexiev who was the financial adviser. These were not favored by the public due to the anti-Russian sentiment and the bank did not last too long. This may be of interesting read: http://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions...in-to-be-offered-at-auction-.s?releaseId=1122 That said, I did forget to mention that your 1905 5 chon is one of the finest coin that I have seen. In fact, it could be a highlight in your collection. Somewhat underrated in my opinion.
Thanks for the info. Yes the 5 Chon is my favorite in the Korean collection and is in my top 10 favorite coins in my entire collection.
Nah. Pre-1959 Korea is not my area of interest, either. I know a little. Like how to date them. But just from gxseries' responses, I think we're covered here. I am making note of his responses, too. Good info.
Joe, Here's a posting by gxseries on these same coins. I added some more information to this post in the form of images of an article about "Korean Struck Coins" of this same era. Perhaps you'd be interested: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/gu...lted-down-korea-1-4-yang.247180/#post-1928327
