This is another "Hwan" coin with a less-commonly-known history and set of data. These coins were stamped with the "4292" (1959) date, but the overwhelming majority of them were actually minted in 1960. See chart, below. Again, minted by the U.S. Philadelphia Mint. The Krause catalog does say that the coin was "withdrawn from circulation and melted." However, additional information from Korean sources say that 315 Metric Tons (approximately 46,730,000 coins) were melted down after the currency reform of 6-12-1962, and in later years fabricated into copper-nickel plates for new coin blanks. These new coin blanks were used to mint the 100 Won (KM#9) that came out in 1970. This means that 22 Metric Tons (aproximately 3,269,000) coins were NOT melted, and some of these leftovers you can see in the collector market today. Original total mintage: 50 million. Korean sale prices for these coins are wide-ranging, even in the same grades. They sell for much less outside of Korea. This year, one MS-65 (NGC) example sold in Korea for 350,000KRW ($288.00), while another is currently listed at a Korean online venue at 195,000KRW ($161.00) in the same NGC grade, but hasn't sold.
