Here's an interesting article about an American who visited Korea over 100 years ago, and did some currency exchange. I wonder what accounted for the low value of cast coins back then? Was it because most currencies were based on precious metals?
Korean cast money was actually subjected to a lot of fraud and led to public mistrust. Despite being called copper cash coins, I suspect the cast coins are bronze / brass alloy with high amount of iron. Originally they were supposed to be cast in high quality copper but when copper prices rose, old coins were melted down and were cast in alloy which mean that the mints were making a profit out of it. This soon led to public mistrust and therefore in in the late 1800s, a currency reform was urgently required to restore trust.
I wouldn't know. I don't collect the "old" stuff. Authentic Korean struck pieces can be very pricey for me in higher grades (which is how I like to collect), and these cast pieces, well... they're CAST(!) Isn't that how counterfeiters make fake coins, too? In any case, I'm just not into these. There are others at this forum who are knowledgable about Korean cast coinage, though. I was recently reading at a metal-detecting forum about some guy who claimed he found a string of these on a hillside in Korea a few years ago.
