Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="mlov43, post: 2583336, member: 16729"]Not an expert in these, but I think the Chinese characters say:"Gwang Mu Year 10" or in the Korean hangul alphabet, "광무 십년" (pronounced 'gwang mu sheep nyeon') Read the Chinese characters on the coin RIGHT to LEFT (like Arabic).  The "plus" sign is the "ten."  Use this chart below for Chinese character numbers: [ATTACH=full]561155[/ATTACH] "Gwang Mu" is the name of the era, taken after "Emperor" Gwang Mu (a.k.a. King Kojong, who declared Chosun, his country, to be an empire and himself an emperor in 1897). "Sheep" means "ten" "Nyeon" (rhymes with 'sun') means "year" So "Gwang Mu Year 10" means the tenth year after the assumption of Gwang Mu as Emperor, or in Gregorian calendar rendering, 1907. The debasement of these coins after 1906 has to do with Japan's "victory" in the Russo-Japanese War, from which they lost a bit of treasure (not as bad as the Russians), but still bad.  It was from this war in 1905 that made the Japanese feel that they were victims of the peace that was hashed out through the good offices of Teddy Roosevelt.  You see, Japan felt that it should have been compensated by the Russian Empire for the loss of treasure and "sons and husbands" in the war, and should have gotten more of the contested islands to the north of Japan (which Japan and Russia STILL have sovereignty disputes over).   They also started to hate the Americans as a result.  This was the real origins of the of Pacific War in the 1930s and 1940s, from the Japanese viewpoint.[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches