In the annals of rejected coin designs, this one is probably the most regrettable for South Korean coinage. At least in my opinion. The left-facing bust of South Korea's first president, Syngman Rhee (이승만) was not the initial design choice for the then new 100 Hwan coin in 1959. The South Korean Mint first wanted to go with this impressive rendering of the 7th century Silla Dynasty Cheomseongdae observatory with the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the background. However, it was the visage of Syngman Rhee that ended up on the 1959 100 Hwan coin (a coin minted at the Philadelphia Mint in 1959~1962). The reason why the Koreans made this change is not explained in the available literature on this topic. Anyone looking at South Korean currency in the period 1948~1961 quickly learns that it was not the first time that his face showed up their currency —out of the twenty-one Bank of Korea notes that circulated during Rhee’s presidency, nine of them featured his face. However, Rhee’s appearance on the 100 Hwan coin was the final time. Six months after the coins were first introduced, Rhee was removed from power via popular uprising by a public that, among other things, was fed up with seeing his face on their currency. Perhaps taking a lesson from this cautionary tale, no other South Korean president has since placed his or her own face on the country’s circulating coins or banknotes(!) The rejected design (left) ...and the design that ended up on the coin (right). The Syngman Rhee bust was sketched by Kim Ki-hwan, a designer at the South Korean Mint, and later engraved at the Philadelphia Mint by Engelhardus von Hebel.
Nice write up Every time I see the stone observatory I think of a pizza oven. I told that to my Korean teacher when we went there on a class trip...she didn't think it was funny
But by God, it certainly DOES look like you could just reach up and pull out one of those little hoity-toity goat cheese-and-spinach cracker crust pizzas out of that square hole! On the other hand, making fun of others' National Treasures (to their faces) is rather unwise. I took the same mirthless stance as your teacher when Ren and Stimpy thought that there was gold hidden inside Lincoln's head at the Memorial. Up until the point when I fell off of the sofa laughing, I though that the makers of this cartoon should be brought up on charges of treason:
Kimchi pizza? Surely there must be such a creation. BTW @mlov43 great write up. Korean coins are so far off my radar, except for getting an occasional 10 won in a coin roll or something, that I really want to know more about them.
