Here are five S. Korean coins, all dated 2003, that I acquired through a very generous friend. These coins are in reverse proof. Supposedly only 3,000 of each denomination were struck in this type of surface finish, and the 2003 strikes are the lowest mintage of the 2001 to 2004 reverse proof strikes. These reverse proof coins were supposedly all placed in special Bank of Korea "foreign gift sets" (dated 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004) that Korean currency industry employees distributed worldwide as gifts. The One-Won coin is missing in this group, but I'm not complaining! I thought I'd NEVER get my hands of any of these quite rare pieces.
Yeah, a really solid and generous person I've never met who lives 15,000 miles away... Let's just say I am in debt to him. He shared with me how he obtained these coins. He saw them for sale online for only a few dollars. It seems that many people who sell these coins, or the sets that they come in, don't really know that they're "special" at all. These were obviously broken out of a 2003 Bank of Korea Foreign Gift Set (Mintage: 3K). Many times sellers of these BOK Foreign Gift Sets will let them go for the price of a regular BOK mint set from that same year, which is MUCH less $$. It's only because the mint sets and the gift sets look almost identical. The only difference is that the Foreign Gift Sets have NO Korean writing AT ALL on their cases and slipcovers. Most sellers don't seem to be aware of that... My friend here has picked up at least TWO other pristine Foreign Gift Sets with reverse proof coins in them, just like these coins, and for similar, pitifully LOW prices!
