North Korea

I've got one of these.

 

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Here are mine.

 

And more.

 

I don't collect DPRK coins, only South Korea.

Just for the reason that most NK coins are made simply to sell overseas to foreigners in exchange for Euros and US Dollars (boring!). Hardly anybody in NK can purchase them, unless they are well-connected members of the Workers Party, and have the privileges that go along with that, such as a Pyongyang address, the ability to buy Channel No. 5 perfume, Johnny Walker Black Label scotch, etc. People in countries like the DPRK are absolutely obsessed with material things, surprisingly more so than most people in the West, if you can believe that. AND, I would bet that they wouldn't give a crud about buying numismatics from their own country anyway, I'm sure, unless as bullion.

As far as visiting the DPRK, it would be nice to visit if you could be allowed to see things as freely as you can in South Korea: The reality is, you get an extremely scripted and limited itinerary, despite the country's beauty. If you ask your "handlers" to go to a specific attraction, the answer is almost invariably "no," just because the people in charge get sick pleasure in denying you something that you want. If someone else was paying for my trip to NK, I'd consider it. Otherwise, forget it.

As for the coins: I think they are not exactly aesthetically appealing, and all of their circulation coinage (the coins that they REALLY use in the DPRK as cash) are all made out of aluminum. Not too crazy about a whole series of aluminum coins.

Also, you can EASILY find DPRK coins at ebay. Just don't search for "North" Korea. Search for "Korea", and you'll see all kinds of coins and notes from the DPRK. The sellers are even listing them as "South Korea" to get around the ban.

 

DPRK coins make no sense to me whatsoever: What the heck is Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang doing on a (supposed) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) commem? There is no corresponding literature with the sale of these coins to explain the reasoning behind it. The only thing that makes sense is the title ("DPRK Central Bank") and the coat of arms on the reverse.

I mean...what the dealy-o with the freaking hippos and giraffes?

I think it might be their way of "flipping the bird" to the rest of the world.

 

Thanks for letting me know how to search them on ebay. Never considered that ha. I have to admit, that ms65 coin is gorgeous. I wouldn't mind owning that one.

 

The theme of the series is "transportation", and with a lot of imagination one could argue that it may have something to do with the distribution of foods. Oh well, the FAO did not accept these issues (set of seven pieces) as part of the coin program anyway. The global FAO coin program ended roughly ten years ago.

But 2002 is a good example of emission diarrhea: In that year, North Korea did not only issue that set, but more than 150 different coins and "coins". The numbers in the catalog I use go from 489 and 652 for that one year only.

Christian

 

More than enough reason NOT to collect North Korea.

But, each to his own...

 

This are a coins for real circulation.

 

Well I saw this one and had to get it, mintage of 10K I think...

 

That's pretty nice. It's a really different looking coin.

 

Here is my one North Korean coin. Yes, probably made for foreign collectors (since the text is in English) and never touched by a normal working (and/or starving) North Korean. I feel no compunction at all about buying coins from anywhere, as long as I don't buy them directly from some monstrous government. Any way, this one claims a Korean built the world's first "armored" ship (armored with oak). Bought on ebay in 2011.

 

Huh. I actually like these coins, as far as aluminum Communist junk goes. I've seen much worse.

 

Please note that some of the recent posts are now here ...
What countries do you dislike/not collect?
... as they are not really NK related.

Christian

 

Yes, this is Admiral Yi Soon-shin and his Geobuk seon or "Turtle Boat."

Admiral Yi (or Lee) is not often touted by the DPRK as a big historical hero, not as much as in South Korea. He's an historically-acceptable figure in the North (obviously, there's his commemorative coin!), but only a MINOR one. I suspect the reason is because the North's arch-nemesis, President Park (1961-1979) of South Korea pushed the image and legend of Admiral Yi in a major "monuments building" campaign (this effort also resulted in South Korea's 100 Won coin (1970) featuring the Admiral, and the 5 Won coin (1966) with the turtle ship).

Admiral Yi and the turtle boat were much-celebrated as anti-Japanese symbols during the Park regime, since Park needed anti-Japanese messaging to offset his cozying up to Japan during his economic push (After they normalized relations with Japan in 1965, the South Koreans became the beneficiaries of over $1.4 billionUSD in Japanese grants, loans, and commercial credits by 1985). Admiral Yi helped deflect the Korean public's attention away from the fact that much of the South's economic rise was financed by Japan, even though this was kept as hush-hush as possible, too. ..and it helped Park's own anti-Japanese cred. He needed it: The president was an officer in the Japanese Army during WW2(!)

So, seeing the Admiral on a DPRK coin is interesting, as he is probably one of (maybe) TWO historical figures to which BOTH the North and the South can agree.

You can get sufficient info about the turtle boat at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_ship

 

If you search for 5 or 10 Chon on Ebay you should be able to find some circulated coins from NK. By the looks of things they aren`t very expensive.

 

Cool thanks

 

Never mind that, how is their internet connection?

 

I have the same series as of animals and autos as posted above, but I do have one coin that was minted for circulation: