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*
Mok Hwa T'o Kfim Su
(wood) (fire) (earth) (metal) (water)
The first four quatrains from the
Thousand-Character Classic originally
were as follows:
J10
M % V^r 7C
(Reading from top to bottom and
from right to left.)
IV
III
II
I
13
9
5
1
14
10
6
2
15
11
7
3
16
12
8
4
Transposing this order to give a
literal translation:
Heaven
Earth
Primeval Black
and Yellow
II
Space
Time
Flood
Desolation
III
Sun
Moon
Wax
Wane
IV
Starry
Heavens
Scatter
and Arrange
A further translation into some-
thing of an occidental line of thinking
might go:
When Heaven and Earth were in
primeval gloom,
From space and time in flood and
desolation,
Engendered Sun and waxing-waning
moon,
And scattered out the stars into
relation . . .
Not unlike the Biblical story of
Genesis, the classic continues in its
poetical course to say "clouds rise",
"rain falls", "rice 'harvests' ", "win-
ter goes", "summer comes" and so
forth. Thus the Koreans, when adopt-
ing an index number for furnace
groups in their mints, gave allusion
to a mottoa quasi-religious motto
from a series in neat categorical
order. Here was mechanical A-B-C-D
cataloguing with the gravity and de-
corum of religious belief; here repre-
sented were many concepts of the "In
God We Trust" on coinages of our
United States.
Quotations from the Thousand
Character Classic on Yopchon coin-
ages number only up to the 44th
character. The reason for some
usually missing in between in a given
series is apparent to choose "flood"
or "desolation" would of course be an
ill-omen. There are some but not
many "bad-word" quotes to be found.
In later years the largest and oldest
mints would add a mark for the indi-
vidual die such as a dot, circle, dou-
ble-circle, curve, etc., and occasion-
ally a numeral. (Some of these marks
are representations of secondary
phases of the T'ae Guk.*) In the case
of small mints or when the large
mints themselves were small, ordi-
* See p. 36 for further data on T'ae Guk
symbol.
nary numerals were customary for
furnace-group or furnace marks in-
stead of characters from the literary
sources. On top of all this, placement
of the furnace mark to the right or
left side of the coin's reverse often
indicated the furnace's geographical
location within the mint's furnace
group. Occasionally a numeral would
stand as index number in a series of
issues from a given mint. Sometimes
dates in the Chinese Sexagenary
Cycle were indicated, and there are
cases in which one of the Thousand
Character Classic or 5-Element
characters are the same as a mint's
mark. The Bank of Korea once pos-
sessed 3,137 different specimens of
the Sang P'yong Yopchon pieces. It
is unnecessary to comment upon the
amount of ramification and confusion
amassed in 205 years of issue from
what concluded as a total of about
forty mints!
In the planning of the late Yopchon
issues, the master die-carver executed
a sample of the coin-to-be in soft
wood for the inspection of the agency
planning to manufacture it. If satis-
factory, a few other trial speci-
mens were cast in copper and in rare
instances in pewter or silver. When
the manufacturer inspected the
product and was satisfied, a mat shed
(as described on page 28) was hoist-
ed and minting began.
(Reduced from actual size.)
Large size (30-32 mm.), 1678-1800
Early issue from 6 Yong Ch'ong
mint.
Medium size (27-29 mm.), 1800-1850.
6 Yong Ch'ong mint (LCC #5).
Small size (24-26 mm.), post-1850.
LCC #19. A proof of larger-than-
ordinary small size.
"Proof" in this context refers to
carefully made specimens with high
points of the coin smooth and glossy.
Small size late issue from 6 Song
Ch'ong. Proof of ordinary size.
Test in wood from Hullyon Togam
mint (LCC #6). Considered as
being from an individual furnace,
it is probably unique.
Korea's policy of delegating the re-
sponsibility of national coinages con-
tinued on and on. In the beginnings
of Yopchon issues, use of this money
had been forbidden at trading posts
in order to keep out foreign pieces.
Yopchon was made with minute care
and surveillance, but lack of true
unity in the monetary system(such
as quotations often differing for
"local" and "out-of-district" coin-
ages) crudeness, cheapness in manu-
facture, public unfamiliarity and slow
communication and transportation
could not preclude extensive counter-
feiting (e.g., minting of coins without
permit for individual benefit) as well
as unauthorized provincial issues.
Moreover, the fact that metallic
money had finally become a funda-
mental need of the people made
money-minting an ever-profitable en-
terprise. It became standard pro-
cedure for any governmental or other
agency or office needing funds to se-
cure a permit and cast an issue of
coins. The minting of Yopchon soon
grew into a torrent of coinage after
coinage of different sizes, mints,
groups, metals, markings, issues and
quality. As time drew on it was
found that the size of the coins could
be encroached upon with impunity, so
fromabout 1800 the pieces were re-
duced froman original weight-stand-
ard of approximately 147 grains per
piece to the final result of a 70-grain
miniature. Needless to say, the cost
of living jumped as Korea's "Always
Even", "Stabilized" coins shrank.
Following is a list of mint marks
found on Sang P'yong T'ong Bo Yop-
chon coppers. Excluding the first
seven, only the marks of the mint
and general sizes of coins therefrom
are listed in this work. Here there is
neither space nor possibility to list
the thousands of minor variations.
The places listed were not necessar-
ily mints; they were offices granted
the right of coinage. Their mints
were located at spots convenient for
minting.
Mark
Sizes
Thous. Char.
Classic quotes
LCC#4
Hojo
Treasury
Department
lg., med.,
sm.
1-31
LCC#5
6 Yong Ch'cng
Hullyon Togam
A special
(odd job)
army unit
lg., med.,
sm.
1-20. Also 5-Element
markings
LCC#6
Military
Training
Command
lg., med.,
sm.
1-20
il
P'yongan
KamYong
P'yongan
Provincial
Office
lg., med.,
sm.
1-10
LCC#7
Y-
Cholla
KamYong
Cholla
lg., med.,
sm.
1-25
LCC#8
Provincial
Office
Jin Hyul
Ch'ong
Charity
Office'
in Seoul
LCC#9
m
lg., med.,
sm.
none
LCC#10 Sa Bok Si
Bureau of
Royal
lg., med.,
sm.
none
Transporta-
tion
4
6
Ch'ung Ch'ong
LCC #11 Provincial Office
Py'ongjo
LCC #12 Ministry of Defense
LCC #13 Above two mints in contract
Tae Dong Ch'ong
LCC #14 Supplementary Land Tax Office
Kongjo
LCC #15 Ministry of Civil Construction
The Military Command
LCC #16 in Cholla Province
The Military Command
LCC #17 in P'yongan Province
LCC #18 Food Supply Office
Kyun Yck Ch'ong
LCC #19 Gov't Tithe Office
Son He Ch'ong
LCC #20 Rice & Cloth Dep't of LCC #14
LCC #21 Same as above
large
m
x
.*&
Mu Bi Sa
LCC #22 Office of Armaments
Kum Wi Yong
LCC #23 Court Guard Military Unit
- Kaesong Bu Kwalli Yong
LCC #24 Kaesong Township Military Office
Ch'ong Yung Ch'ong
LCC #25 General Military Office
LCC #26 Same as above
T'ong Wi Yong
LCC #27 Military Headquarters
Kyongsang Kam Yong
LCC #28 Kyongsang Provincial Office
Kyonggi Kam Yong
LCC #29 Kyonggi Provincial Office
Kang Hwa Sim Yong
LCC #30 Kang Hwa Island Fort
LCC #31 Same as LCC #29
LCC #32 Same as LCC #29
Hamgyong Kam Yong
LCC #33 Hamgyong Provincial Office
Hwanghae Kam Yong
LCC #34 Hwanghae Provincial Office
fro
A
lg., med.,
sin.
med.
lg.,
sm.
lg..
sm.
'
7TC
Ik
'
H
sm.
lg.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg-,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg.,
sm.
lg., med..
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
sm.
(unknown)
lg., med.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
lg., med.,
sm.
47
LCC #35
Same as LCC #34
LCC #36
Kangwon Kam Yong
Provincial Office
LCC #37
Same as above*
LCC #38
I-chon Township
Chun Ch'cn Sa
LCC #39
Seoul Construction Office
LCC #40
Ch'un Ch'cn Township
LCC #41
Kycng Ri Ch'ong
Treasury Office
LCC #42
Same as above
LCC #43
Ch'ang Dck Kung
Ch'ang Dok Palace Mint
LCC #44
Su 6 Ch'ong Seoul Defense Port
(Nam Han San Song Defense Unit)
LCC #45
Pi Byon Sa
National Defense Committee
LCC #46
Chong Ch'o Ch'~n-
The 'Corrmando' Military Unit
LCC #47
Suwon Township
LCC #48
Same as LCC #45
LCC #49
Kwangju Township
LCC #50
Same as LCC #48
LCC #51
Unknown (Corps of Engineers?)
LCC #52
Same as LCC #35
LCC #53
Same as LCC #38
LCC #54
Same as LCC #27
LCC #55
Same as LCC #37
LCC #56
Same as LCC #30
LCC #57
Same as LCC #36
/ V.
lg.,
sm.
* Not to be confused with LCC 15.
M.
lg., med.,
sm.
U.
lg.,
sm.
u
sm.
M
(unknown)
(unknown)
&
(unknown)
JKX
sm.
O
S
sm.
if
lg.,
sm.
ffl
lg-
sm.
&
lg., med.,
sm.
*.
lg.,
med.
ifr
lg-
sm.
fSJ
med.,
sm.
k
lg- .
Sfe
lg.
M.
sm.
'&
,
At this point an interlude from
Korea's definitive coinages will be
appropriate. In place, a few of the
coin-like objects which comprise an
interesting part and a colorful flair
in the life and history of the Koreans
will be described.
This interesting specimen is Mili-
tary Plate "Money" in silver. Finances
either in the form of silver bars or in
a form such as this is said to have
been held in regimental treasuries of
MILITARY PLATE "MONEY'
the Korean military services for na-
tional defense. The hole is said to
have been for a cord for the piece
to be hung from the neck of the com-
mander "with grand armor on state
occasions" hence the naming, fin
Kwan (Silver Punched Through). A
variety is inscribed "New Regiment*
Weight 5 Yang 8 Chon 5 Pun. Other
types seen by the writer show values
of 5 and 10 Yang.
* A repiment activated and trained under
Japanese auspices in 1882.
Inscription: "Military Division Weight 5 Yang 9 Chon'
(Reverse is Plain.) 132 mm.
Beware of forgeries. See note on page 21.
4?
Coins had come to be used in Ko-
rean religious ceremonies and as tok-
ens and charms, and with these pur-
poses in mind, special amulet-pieces
along the design of coins made their
appearance. Placing a coin or charm
with ceremony on the new baby for
its future well-being, hanging of
strings of attached coins and amulets,
use as pocket souvenirs and any num-
ber of other quaint relationships in-
volving coin-objects had taken a stout
place indeed in the heart of Korean
life and lore. The pungency of the
inscriptions needs no comment.
(See H. A. Ramsden's Corean Coin Charms
and Amulets, Yokohama, 1913 and Frederick
Starr's supplement thereto appearing in the
Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
of Japan, 1917, or more complete information
on this subject).
(Reduced from actual size)
LARGE COIN CHARM
For eloquent and auspicious occasions
(marriage, etc.)
Smaller-size charms of this type were
made by punching holes in large-size
coins and using them as a base. (See
LCC #2 and #3).
Father, Mother, Brothers, Sisters;
East, West, North, South
on two sides of one coin
"Fish
Flip"
(when)
"DRAGONS
ASCEND"
(It behooves one to be a 'dragon'
in one's endeavors).
"May the Prince of the East Live
Ten Thousand Years: May the Sun
and Moon Shine Brilliantly and Over-
flow the Universe; the Earth and
Heavens are Full of Glorious Vir-
tues; Long Life 'a Million'."
"May You Have Descendants for
Ten Thousand Years: Ten Thousand
Years of Peace in Heaven and Earth
Without Having to Work, Ever."
50
To return to coinages . . .
In 1866, the 3rd year of Regent
Tae Won Gun, a spectacular Yop-
chon piece came out. To finance re-
building of the Kyong Bok Palace,
the royal Summer Palace which was
destroyed in the War of 1592, this
coin was made a "Great Hundred-
Value". It was unacceptable to the
public because of this high over-
valuing.
On rare occasions, specimens thick-
er than 4V-, mm. are encountered.
TANG PAEK (CHON)
(Great Hundred-Value), 1866
LCC #58 39-40 mm.
(Above) proof.
(Below) pewter cast (ex. rare).
Characters read:
Sang
Bo T'ong
P'yong
Ho
Paek Tang
Tae
"Tae" also indicates the "Great" Fur-
nace in the "Ho" (Treasury Depart-
ment) mint.
SI
Silver coins were made in the 19th
year of Tae Won Gun (1882) from a
supply of Chinese Sycee (tub-shaped
silver ingots). In the center of the
reverse is the Treasury Department's
mint mark embellished with cloisonne
enamel, usually blue or green. These
pieces have crude reeding. The high
cost of the enamel prohibited mass
manufacture, and minting stopped in
June, 1883.
Castings in copper without the en-
amelapparently trial piecesexist.
Characters read:
Tae
Chon
n
Yi
Sam
Dong
TAE DONG IL CHON
(Great Eastern 1 Chon) 1882
LCC #59 20-22 mm.
TAE DONG YI CHON
(Great Eastern 2 Chon) 1882
LCC #60 26-28 mm.
TAE DONG SAM CHON
(Great Eastern 3 Chon) 1882
LCC #61 scarce 32-34 mm.
52
The last Yopchon variety in 1883
was made a quintuple value piece.
Once in circulation, the pieces were
given the same value, save in the vi-
cinity of Seoul, as the large size Yop-
chon of older issue. Ten offices were
authorized to have these coins cast.
In the large size, specimens 3 mm.
or more thick are encountered on rare
occasions.
TANG O (CHON)
(Quintuple-Value), 1883
(Above) Proof.
(32 mm.)
(Below) Inferior casting of Tang 0.
(28% mm.)
Tang O Yopchon mint marks . . .
LCC #62 Chon Hwan Kuk
LCC #63 Hojo
P'yongan
LCC #64
LCC #65
LCC #66
LCC #67
Kam Yong
Kyun Yok
Ch'ong
T'ong Wi
Yong
Kang Hwa
Sim Yong
Kyonggi
Kam Yong
Seoul Mint of the
Central Govt.
Treasury
Department
P'yongan Prov-
incial Office
Government
Tithe Office
Military
Headauartsrs
Kang Hwa
Island Fort
Kyonggi Prov-
incial Office
Seoul Construc-
tion Office
LCC #68
LCC #69 Chun Ch'on Sa
LCC #70 Ch'un Ch'on Township
Ch'ang Ch'ang Dok
LCC #71 Dok Kung Palace Mint
Mark
m
V'L>
M
iM
1 1
(Same as LCC # 4)
(Same as LCC # 7)
(Same as LCC #19)
(Same as LCC #27)
(Same as LCC #30)
(Same as LCC #32)
(Same as LCC #39)
(Same as LCC #40)
(Same as LCC #43)
The year 1883, which marks the start of planning for the modern mint,
ends the period in which Yopchon was the principal monetary intention
of the government. However, Yopchon castings went beyond 1883
probably until close to 1900.
SECTION V
THE MODERN STRUCK COINAGE
1884 - 1910
THE COIN ILLUSTRATIONS IN SECTION V ARE PLACED TO IMITATE
THE DIE POSITIONINGS.
The term "test coin" herein is loosely descriptive of both essay, a striking
from dies made but not accepted, and of pattern, an essay coin whose design
was copied very closely on an issued type.
The first struck coins discussed,
the Haikwan (Kwan P'ing) Tael essay
pieces, are controversial. They are
thought by some to be Sino-Korean
and by others to be strictly Chinese,
but there is no solid evidence for
either view.
From Japanese sources comes the
general ideawith some details con-
tradictorythat the Haikwan essays
were planned for Sino-Korean use and
designed in about 1884 (1) to be a
fit modern currency for Korean unity
and foreign trade, (2) to get China
financial control of Korea, (3) to gain
for China profits of the Trade Dollar
kind, and (4) to build up the Chinese
Customs through which they would
have been issued. (There are also less
likely views that these essays came
from Hong Kong in 1865 or that they
are of 1891 Formosan origin.)
Against the Sino-Korean theory and
for the Chinese, this has been said:
1. Calling the coins Korean and not Chi-
nese at all probably stems from the Yin
Yang, Trigrams, and dragons, a Chinese sym-
bol borrowed by Korea.
2. Since Korea was under Japan's control
for 40 years, the Japanese ought to know
about the Kwan P'ing Tael, but they seem
not to.
3. Chinese-Korean trade in the early '80s
was insignificant and could not have been
helped by Sino-Korean coins.
4. No "German merchant of Shanghai"
(the Japanese probably refer to P. G. von
Moellendorf) could have gotten Korea to
adopt a Sino-Korean currency.
5. The coins are Chinese because KWAN
PING TAEL is Chinese.
6. The fractional coins show a Chinese,
not a Korean plant.
7. Since China's Haikwan Tael unit was
seven times the Korean Tael (Yang) no silver
coins could have fit to such a difference.
In 1856. partly as an aid for paying cus-
toms dues in the tub-shaped Chinese silver
ingots called Sycee, crude silver Tael and
half-Tael "cakes"' were made by Chinese
silver merchants by order of bankers and
doubtless the government as well. Due to
counterfeiting, "cake"Taels were being with-
drawn after about six months of issue. In
1858, it seems that the Inspector-General of
Chinese customs. H. N. Lay, had essays for new
coins made abroad, most likely in Britain.
This set of coins, then orientally counter-
feit-proof, eliminated the poorness of silver
merchant coins. But the Imperial Manchu
Government, which had not been consulted,
seems to have had both essay coins and dies
destroyedno date was put on them and
the Trigrams on the Tael are in wrong order.
The Taiping rebellion then quickly drew at-
tention away from the matter.
Abook on Korean coins would be
concerned with Sino-Korean coins,
but investigating these arguments
from the Sino-Korean point of view
is not done with hope to wedge in
five more modern coins for Korea. It
is because of this: while the Chinese
and Sino-Korean schools of thought
may later be proved wrong, and while
they are most likely both right, the
present correct attribution of the Hai-
kwan Tael essay coins is not Sino-
Korean, nor Chinese, but unknown;
authorities all agree. The possibilities
and probabilities from the Sino-Korean
point of view are as follows:
China traditionally had named her-
self "The Center of the World"and
had laid passive claim to Korea. 1884
China was an empire whose tribute
paying areas were pulling away, and
to - mend her fraying empire, China
got up mending schemes for which
Sino-Korean Haikwan Taels would
have made a good yarn. If real rea-
sons for dominating Korea were lack-
ingand they weresynthetic ones
such as that scheme could be produced.
The inscription of the Tael is:
* Shanghai Maritime Customs
** Currency
Such a coin for Chinese hegemony
only in Korea would be a Sino-Korean
Customs Tael. If ascribed only to 1858
(if planned only for the Chinese cus-
toms' international business) it would
be a Chinese Customs Tael. If ascribed
both to 1858 and 1884, it would be a
Sino-Korean Chinese Customs Tael.
Under the 1884 theory, the wording
"China-International" would be need-
ed; such a proper identity as 'Sino
Korean Currency' would need to be
disguised. A Sino-Korean Currency
disguised as "China-International"
answers the question, "Why, if Sino
Korean, had the coins no Sino-Korean
inscription?", a point not raised by
the Chinese side which might be. The
coins' inscriptions (recognizable to
Koreans) are basically Chinese, but
when the coins may be Chinese and/or
Sino-Korean, they cannot be called
either until one theory is disproved
or both proved.
Though the archives of the Chinese
Customs are voluminous, there is no
account of these Haikwan essays, ob-
viously customs coins (the question
being, "For the Chinese customs
and/or for the Chinese and Chinese
Korean customs?). Were the coins
concsaled? The faults in design and
the seeming lack of permission for
them likely would have damaged any-
one responsible. Even if Chinese au-
thority were aware, plans for Korea
would still rate "top secret" classifi-
cation with records possibly having
been destroyed later.
Already the maze of moot questions
tells that an "unknown" attribution
is bsst for now. However, seven rea-
sons for thinking the coins irreconcil-
ably Chinese remain to be answered.
The answers are:
1. Reliable Japanese sources neither
have called the coins only Korean, nor
Chinese not at all, nor have they used,
nor would they use, Yin Yang, Tri-
grams, and dragons as proof for doing
so.
2. Korea and Korean finance were
under Japan officially for 35 years
and semi-officially for half again
longer. The opinions of redoubtable
Japanese scholars should not be sum-
marily dismissed.
3. The claim that Korean trade was
insignificant in the early 1880's is
wrong. There were foreign-trade
expansion treaties with Japan in 1875
and with China, the United States,
Britain, and Germany in the early
'80s, at which time a treaty with
France was also in the offing, and
at which time these and other nations
were clamoring for the "most-favored
nation clause" regarding Korean trade.
4. Something to replace Korea's
bulky and debased Yopchon hole-cop-
pers had become a prompt and vital
need. Through this means of prying
open Korea's door came appointment
of Paul George von Mollendorf to di-
rectorship of a new Korean mint for a
Chinese-sponsored currency. Command
responsibility for this project was
with the powerful Chinese throne con-
sultant, the Viceroy Li Hung-chang,
Special Adviser on Korean Affairs.
Point four seems good. The seeming
Japanese misnomer "Shanghai Ger-
man merchant" might tentatively be
replaced by the name of von M. How-
ever, since the coins would appear
from Hart rather than from von M.
in 1884, his name might better be
tentatively replaced by that of Hart.
Part of Vy. Li Hung-chang's job
was to aid the Chinese foothold in
Korea; financial control was a step.
And to "protect China's interests"
(to monopolize the Korean coast trade
for his China Merchant Steam Navi-
gation Company) he drew up regula-
tions to control the overland and sea
borne Chinese-Korean trade, a point
further attesting significance of the
Korean trade.
5. The words "Kwan P'ing Tael"
with the perhaps meaningly mislead-
ing "China International" might not
only fool the people of those times,
but also numismatists of years later
trying to attribute the coins. While
KWAN PING TAELis, by all means,
Chinese, one merely reads further on
the Tael to see "China-International"
(or Sino-Foreign, whichever transla-
tion is preferred) which inscription
must convey the idea of a Chinese
foreign, not strictly a Chinese, cur-
rencyfor the Chinese customs and/or
Chinese hegemony.
6; The Tael's four fractional pieces
show their value within fruiting
branches of Thea sinensis L. (a tea
plant) with the ripe capsule dehis-
cent.* If the coins were for Chinese
Korea, a plant of Korea coupled with
*So says the Head Curator of the New
York Botanical Garden. Specimens of this
plant in the Botanical Garden's herbarium
were compared wih a double-enlarged photo
of the Five Chien.
Yin Yang and Trigrams, the National
Symbol of Korea, would have made
the coins smack very muchperhaps
too muchof Korea. A strictly Chi-
nese plant is a good solution to such
a problem.
7. Under the 1884 hypothesis, the
coins would have been planned
simply for Sino-Korean use toward
Chinese financial rule, for rule over
Korea proper, and for profiting the
hard-pressed and spreading Chinese
Customs organ. In a case of China's
foisting Chinese-ish coins upon "Chi-
nese" Korea, any difference between
the Chinese and Korean idea of a
Tael's value would not have matter-
edthe more Chinese the Tael, the
better for China.
Regardless of their logic, these re-
plies lead more readily to the fact
that conjecture gets too complicated.
However, so that the illustration of
good sense in the 1884 view may be
rounded out well, the likelihood of
whether the coins were Hart's or von
Mollendorf's in 1884 shall conclude.
It should be remembered that this
is a Customs Tael. The 1884 Inspec-
tor General of Chinese Customs, Sir
Robert Hart, wanted a Korean Cus-
toms built similar to and responsible
to his Chinese service; in October,
1885, his Korean Customs came into
being. Hart was coinage-minded; he
had been thwarted in his view of
founding a Chinese national mint, a
proposal which he offered at the Chefu
Convention of 1875. Were the coins
Hart's in 1884? Perhaps. His guid-
ance was in demand; his influence
and power were at their peak. As
the long-time and brilliant leader of
the Customs of China, he had carried
China through many excursions,
alarms, and disasters which sapped
revenues of all kinds. Best of reve-
nue-getters was the customs which
gained fame and popularity under
him. Profitable Sino-Korean customs
coins would have made good sense for
him and his customs.
Were the coins von Mollendorf's?
It does not seem likely. As director
of the new Korean mint, von M. was
known at the Korean Court. He had
just been employed with Hart's Chi-
nese Customs at Tientsin. It would
have behooved von M. to induce the
Korean sanction of a Sino-Korean
currency but for one thing: he was
at personal odds with Hart. In his
official posts von M. had become
supercilious and imprudent. Hamper-
ing his office with the Chinese Cus-
toms and with the newly-formed Ko-
rean Customs and mint, this flaw was
to be politically fatal during his Vice
Ministership to Internal & Military
Affairs, to Foreign Affairs & Trade
of Korea, and Foreign Advisership
to the King of Korea. Von M. was
not shy in flaunting his posts as mere
stepping-stoneshe had come to the
orient with the promised award from
the Wilhelmstrasse of a station in the
German consular service. Now von
Mollendorf obtained the German strik-
ing of two other essay coins dated 1885
which are wholly Korean. If Hart,
his antagonist, got out a bad set of
1884 Sino-Korean coins, such 1885
coins by von M. (the improved edition
of a good move at which his antagon-
ist had failed?) may mirror likely
responsibility for the Haikwans back
to Hart.
Known Haikwan essays are in sil-
ver and are extremely rare. A forgery
of the Tael is noted by the major dif-
ference that its diameter is about 40
instead of 41 millimeters.
Taking part in a debate can be an uncomfortable job. However firm his writer may seem,
the purpose is purely respectful, remedial and unbiased. To have it thought that heavy
handedness is meant here would be as wrong as it would be distressing to him. It is hoped
that the sources from which these views are taken will appreciate this discussion.
Haikwan "Sino-Foreign" Essay Coins
Five Fen (Fun)
16, not 14% mm
One Chien (Chon)
20 mm.
Two Chien (Chon)
25, not 21V2 mm.
Five Chien (Chon)
34 mm.
One Tael (Yang)
41 mm.
These are the obscurest of all mod-
ern Korean coins (their inscriptions
mark them as Korean coins). They
are struck, not cast; #1 among them
copies LCC #62, an 1883 Yopchon
cast at the Seoul Mint of the Central
Government, and #3 bears the mark of
the Ch'ung Ch'ong Provincial Office.
The coins' rude striking with metal
clung to or clogged in the dies, their
extreme rarity, and their lack of data
are points which together mark them
as test, not issue pieces.
There is a remark in Yu Ja-ho's
book* which apparently refers to these
coins, placing an 1884 dating on them
and therewith authenticating them.
The remark is that because of von
M's 1884 mission to Japan, die carv-
ing was rough. This remark cannot
concern the 1885 Essays; they were
expertly made in Germany. These
coins' unique crudity, von M's 1885
Korean demise, and the fine execu-
tion of later coins are facts which
point the remark to these coins.
Yu Ja-ho, Korean Coinage Study (Seoul.
1940) pp. 528-31.
Struck Quintuple Yopchon
# 1 Value of Five (Mun)
Copper, 8 to 8 y2 Grams
Possibly unique,
31 x 1V4+ mm.
Struck Decuple Yopchon
#2 Value of Ten (Mun)
No mint mark.
Copper, 9 Grams.
Possibly unique,
31 x 1+ mm.
#3 Value of Ten (Mun)
Mint mark of LCC 11
Copper, 6 Grams.
Possibly unique.
31 x IV2+ mm.
The Unknowns
TEST COINS
Dies adjusted f T -
5?
Kim Yun-sik, a pro-Chinese Korean
politician favoring modern coinage,
was acquainted with Li Hung-chang.
Li, quick to see how nice it would be
for China and for him to run a
modern mint of Korea, charged his
man von Mollendorf to get mint ma-
chinery from Germany. The machin-
ery procured was three coining press-
es, two pairs of rollers, one screw
press, an automatic scale, an eight
horsepower engine and a Lancashire
Boiler.
Two essay coins also were supplied;
they were designed by H. Kraus, a
former Mint Director of Germany's
Grand Duchy of Hesse. These essays,
dated in the Chinese Sexagenary
Cycle*, were struck in Germany from
dies made by Held, the Court En-
graver of Magdeburg.
The side of these coins with the
traditional Far Eastern value is the
obverse; these obverses show such
values circled values meaning in
Chinese five Cash and one Tael, in
Korean five Mun and one Yang, and
in Japanese five Mon and one Ryo.
The Korean king's authority seal, a
modified T'ae Guk, is above, and a
*Characters set in a 60-year-cycle chart,
the vertical divisions of characters in which
are "The Ten Celestial Stems" and the hori-
zontal "The Twelve Terrestrial Branches."
One character from each division depicts a
given year.
wreath of blossoming Prunus triflora
(plum) encompasses (the Korean
king's dynastic surname, Yi, was
depicted by a character which in
Chinese depicts Prunus triflora).
The symbol of heraldic dragons
striving for a marvelous glowing pearl
is also ex-Chinese. In Bhuddism, this
pearl is seen as the sacred Pearl of
Perfection and in Taoism as the sacred
Yueh Pearl which grants all desires.
It also was seen as, as well as actually
being replaced by elsewhere, other
things such as the sun and the Yin
Yang thus the sun's glory or the
paradise of the Yin Yang's harmony
were sought by the dragons, too; mar-
vels manifold were seen to be sought.
Adopted as the National Symbol of
the Manchu Empire, the dragon ex-
pressly portrayed the emperor. Dual
dragons seeking their pearl of achieve-
ments the better to serve their peo-
ple not quintuple-talon Chinese
dragons, but tri-talon "vassal" Ko-
rean ones portrayed rulers in the
dynasty perpetually following one an-
other in this sublime quest. The de-
sign's theme was empire, dynasty and
emperors (Korean kingdom, dynasty
and kings) seeking greatness of a
Holy and transcendant kind.
1885 Chinese-German Korean Essays
TEST COINS
#4 5 MUN
Value of Va Yang given
disregarding the lc Ko-
rean value of Five Mun.
Struck in tin alloy. 1M; + Grams, ex. rare,
diameter 17 mm., thickness 1 Vi mm.
Edge plain.
#5 1 YANG
A la von Moeltendorf and
German Mark, a value of
24-e u. s.
In tin alloy, 3 V. -f gm., ex. rare, 24 x 1 *
Edge reeded.
Dies adjusted T T -
READING DATES
1 YANG
Great Korea
1885 .
. One Yang
In the tri-lingual circle of inscription, left of the romanized value are three characters
meaning Great Korea. They are read from right to left while the coin is being turned to
be read. After "Great Korea" and the period are three more characters depicting the datein
this case, 1885. When this date is right side up, the romanizations are upside down. Turn-
ing the piece further around brings to view Korean Qnmun characters for the value.
Von Mollendorf also made up a plan
for building a mint with the follow-
ing appraisal in Mexican silver: ship-
ping of material 23,000 Hwan; build-
ing 5000; total of monthly salaries of
Korean and Japanese laborers 2000;
of foreign technicians 1000 plus 1500
for the latters' travel, and miscel-
laneous 500. But von M's discharge
from service with the Korean govern-
ment was soon brought on by his
entente with the bellicose Czarist-
Russian Minister to Korea, Karl Wae-
ber, and by von M's own supercilious-
ness. His support of Russia in Korea
was based on nothing less than his
opinion that a Czarist Korea was the
best sort of a Korea. His views made
into law without the sanction of his
employer, the Korean government, or
his sponsor, Li Hung-Chang, were his
undoing. Min Y6ng-ik took over von
M's directorship, and Chung Rak-
ycng, a Korean Commander-of-the
Guard, became the Acting Director in
charge of C. Diedricht and Krauntena*,
German technicians holding the hu-
morous mint posts of "Mechanic" and
"Experimental Expert". The tempor-
ary mint office which had been set
up in the vicinity of Nam Dae Mun
(near the king's palace) being now
too small, soon gave way to a mint.
The building of this mint was begun
near the South Grand Gate of Seoul
in February, 1885.
Tho> Korean king had sent word to
the U. S. Legation's Korean inter-
preter, Yun Ch'i-ho, to consult with
the U. S. Legation on a course for the
modern mint to take. The U. S. Lega-
tion's advice was (1) that if Korea
produces ample silver, she should have
a mint and that there should be a slow
change from the Yopchon but (2)
under a slow change, few new coins
would come out at first, so (3) the
coins should be foreign-made at 1/3
the cost of (1) building the mint. On
getting this amusing* reply via Yun,
the Korean king laughed, and during
that audience the king showed Yun
designs for a new st of test coins,
having him write in the romanization.
Yun romanized what before had been
VANG a" NTANG and romanized
Hwan as WARN.
This new and large set of test coins
followed Kraus' 1885 design fairly
closely, but with these changes: the
date was changed to 1886, and instead
of being in the Chinese Sexagenary
Cycle, it was rendered in the Korean
dynastic dating, reading right to left
"Great Korean Opening- National 495th
Year", it being the 495th year since
the founding of Korea's Yi Dynasty
in 1392.** The period left of the
romanized value was changed to a
Prunus triflora blossom, and other
periods became small circles. Yang
was reduced to 10c U. S.
* The spelling of the latter name is
phoneticizing from characters.
*By taking this advice. Korea would have
been a long time indeed getting her mint built.
The U. S. Minister gave this advice angrily
to Yun ch'i-ho (per Yu Ja-ho (op. cit) pp.
540-552Yu's interview with Yun). If Yun
had not thought the advice angrily given,
it might have been interpreted in a way
whereby Korea's first regular-issue modern
coins would have been made by the U. S.
**The date 1392 is the origin (first) year
of that dynasty.
41-
The Seoul South-Grand-Gate Mint
was finished in November, 1886, and
some work began in December. Chung
Rak-ycng became Mint Director; there
wera now three German technicians:
P. Kraus, Manager; C. Reidt, Assay-
er, and C. Diedricht, Engineer. These
costly German technicians were re-
placed in 1887 by three Japanese from
the Osaka Mint: Mitani Kokuzo with
die-engravers Ikeda Takao and Ina-
gawa Hikotaro. By November, 1887,
23 Japanese had come to work in the
Korean Mint.
1886 Test Coins
(Reading right to left) 188G 5^. 2 "T* jh W P9
T
Arrows point to key character distinguishing #8 and #14 from 1888 coins.
TEST COINS
#6 1 MUN (1/54 US)
Copper .980 fine.
1+ Grams, possibly unique,
15 x 1 mm.
#7 2 MUN
Copper .980,
2 gm., ex. rare,
IS x 1 mm.
3 Mun (?)
Recorded as a questionable.
This one is an extremely
doubtful "questionable".
5 Mun (?)
One contributor claims to
have seen it. Though he
is reliable, no numbering is
made. The writer does ex-
pect a 5 MUN of 1886 to
come to light. It seems
unlikely that it was never
made..
#8 10 MUN
Copper .980,
7+ gm., v. rare.
27% x 1M.+ mm.
#9 20 MUN
Copper .980.
11 xk + fifni., v. rare,
32 x 2 mm.
62
1886 Test Coins, cont'd.
TEST COINS
Edges reeded.
#10 y2 NIANG (Yang)
In tin alloy,
gm., v. rare.
x r/2 + mm.
1-
15
(5<f US)
#11 1 NIANG
In tin alloy,
1 %~- Km., v. rare,
18 x 1 mm.
#12 2 NIANG
In tin alloy,
3+ gm., v. rare,
24 x 1V2 mm.
#13 5 NIANG
In tin alloy,
7^+ Km., v. rare,
32 x 1%+ mm.
#14 1 WARN (Hwan)
In tin alloy,
Km., v. rare,
c 2 Mi mm.
ld-
3X
($1 US)
43
1886 Test Coins, cont'd.
Edges plain.
TEST COINS
#15 1 WARN
In prilt- copper,
1 Km., v. rare,
13 Mi x 1 mm.
#16 2 WARN
In gilt copper,
2+ Em., v. rare,
IK x 1 mm.
#17 5 WARN
In silt copper,
3V4-t- Km., v. rare,
24 x 1+ mm.
#18 10 WARN
In nilt copper,
7 % + Km., v. rare,
29 x \xk mm.
#19 20 WARN
In Kilt copper,
14Mi+ gm.. v. rare,
36 x 2+ mm.
Dies of 1886 Tests adjusted T T . There seems to have been (I) carelessness or (2)
experimenting for seemly die positioning in these pieces. The blossom or circle flanking the
romanization is often made the base of the reverse side as well as the romanizations. In the
1888 coins following these designs, the flanking blossom is made the base.
An Hyong-su, a Korean politician,
in 1890-91 tried to get the government
to stop the plans for modern style
coins and to resume hole-copper
issues, and went to Japan for advice
on the matter. A small amount of
five-value brass Yopchon was struck
off and issued in about 1890.
Punched out after striking the coin,
the hole is enclosed by a round rim.
The characters on this milestonethe
first issue of modern Korean coins
are tilted and rather untidy.
FIRST ISSUE
Issue of About 1890
(Undated)
Seoul South-Grand-Gate Mint
r ^i^S
r'W'i
t^Sl
ftk, ^M
^^^_^^^j
#20 Value of Five (Mun) (l<f US)
Brass, 6 Grams.
31 x 1+ mm.
Very rare.
Round-rimmed central opening.
Dies adjusted T T.
In the Spring: of 1891 the Korean
commissioner ordered a neater-looking
struck-Yopchon; dies were carved by
the Chief Engraver of Japan's Osaka
Mint, T. Masuda.
The design of this strike repeats
that of the precursor except for hav-
ing a square instead of a round rim
about the hole. A proof of this coin
struck in extra thickness weighing
7% Grams is shown here.* In the
juxtaposed case of #20 and #21,
the pattern follows instead of preced-
ing the issued coin.
TEST COIN
1891 Pattern
(Undated)
#21 Value of Five (Mun)
Brass, 6 y2 gm.,
v. rare, 30 x l1/^ mm.
Square-rimmed central opening.
Dies adjusted T T .
The 6V2 Gram type usually seen is not proofed, and its hole is 6, not 5 mm.
The mint, however, had been rebuilt issue these 5 and 10 MUN copper and
and refurbished for modern struck 1 WARN (Hwan) silver pieces,
coins without holes. Dies dated 1888 Hardly had the Issue of 1891 corn-
were now on hand for an issue of menced when control of the Korean
modern style machine-made coins, and mint passed from Chinese to Japanese
order was given in 1891 to strike and hands.
SECOND ISSUE
Issue of 1891
Issued at 500 Mun to 1 Hwan
Dated 1888 . -fc -f* fa "g" |7Ej . . .(reads riKht to left).
T
Seoul South-Grand-Gate Mint
Arrows point to key character distinguishing these from 1886 Tests.
#22 5 MUN
.980 copper, 3% Grams
22 x H4 mm.,
somewhat scarce.
#23 10 MUN
.980 copper, 6% Grams
27 Vi x 1%+ mm.,
somewhat scarce.
#24 1 WARN (Hwan)
Edge reeded.
.900 silver, 416 Grains,
38 x 2Ms+ mm.,
very rare.
The "W in "WARN" or
adjacent spots on # 24
often are not well struck
Dies adjusted T i .
The epoch of Japanese-Korean coins Osaka Mint. Two coining presses
was now at hand. The President of from the now-defunct Seoul South
Japan's Osaka Copper Works saught Grand-Gate Mint were joined by six
out the Korean commissioner and more bought from Osaka in October,
"with characteristic tact and elo- 1892. On the Chemul'po Mint's finish,
quence"* proposed a reform of a machinists were lent from Osaka to
new world of modern Korean coins. act as foremen; in December, coining
Korea's national coinage done by his began. The new mint had no rolling
firm would be a feat for him, as would or melting machines of its own, and
his patriotic help to bring Korea a11 the flans for a11 its coins came
under Japan's benevolent wing. Plans from the 0saka Copper Works and
were forthwith drawn for a mint at Mint- The new coin issue> on a silver
the port city of Chemul'po (Inch'on) standard, was assigned this exchange
where supplies could be received easi- with the hole-coppers:
ly. Getting a 20,700-Yen loan through
the Japanese Minister of Finance, 1/U t Fun 1 Y6pchon
Count Matsukata, the Osaka Copper
Works' President himself also invest- l<f 5 Fun 5 Yopchon
5<f lA Yang (two Chon*
five Fun) 25 Yopchon
ed, and the Chemul'po Mint was begun
in May, 1892. He was made its super-
intendent, An Hyong-su over-director,
and Song Ki-un director (until Dec. 20<f 1 Yang 100 Yopchon
24, 1892, when Yi Sang-je became
director. Korean workmen-students $1 5 Yang 500 Yopchon
went to Japan's Osaka Mint for a
nine-month training while first dies Much change went into this new
for the new money were carved by series. Mun changed to Fun; 10<f-
T. Masuda, Chief Engraver of the Niang became 20<i-Yang and One
* Y. Koga. "Notes on Korean Mints and * Chon was worth two Cents U. S. with this
CoinaKes", Numismatic and Philatelic Jour- issue. 10 years previously it was 7.2<f and
nal of Japan, Vol. IV, Nos. 4-6 (Oct.-Dec, 10 years later it was to be l<t
1914) p. 140.
Hwan Five Yang, then One Won. Each alert for excuses for her Korean
of the dragons became like the one "suzerainty", and when Yuan noticed
on Japan's coins; the pearl, its glow the legend "Great Korea" on these
put out, became clutched in the talons new coins, he lost no time claiming
of a Japanese dragon. The Korean it an affront to China. "Great" ^
king's seal became a Prunus triflora was forthwith banished from Korea's
blossom* and the wreath's left frond coins.
Hibiscus syracus. By tradition, when
King Yi Tae-jo founded the dynasty
in 1392, a scholar likened the glorious
new kingdom to the "eternal flower"
of Hibiscus syracus. Charmed, the
king decreed that "Land of Eternal
Flower" would be another name for
Korea. A coin with these blossoms
thus would show that it came from
a happy "Land of Eternal Flower."
According to a Japanese source**,
the left-frond change also symbolized
Korea's "taking its place". in t?k,. 10ni * ,,
K In February, 1894, trouble came
Though minting the new coins start-
ed in 1892, the "New-Style Coinage
Regulations" as they were called did
not come out until August, 1894. This
delay was due to the "Great" matter
and to the gathering Sino-Japanese
War. After the war began in 1894,
however, the stock of "Great" coins
was released, and as China met de-
feat in 1895, "Great" was restored
to the coins.
China's Yuan Shih-k'ai (Emperor between the Korean and Japanese
and President of China in 1916) who governments. A 150,000-Yen Korean
was then in charge of several thou- mint investment was refunded to Ja-
sand troops in Korea to steady the pan- and a11 Japanese workmen left
shaky government, had become the the mint which was then taken over
Chinese "Imperial Resident" in Seoul by Koreans. An American with the
after quelling an uprising. China was Korean customs and the Japanese
Mint Superintendent were the only
* The significance of Prunus triflora on Ko-
rean coins is explained on p. 60. foreigners remaining?
** NPJJ. ibid., p. 141
THIRD ISSUE
Issue Commencing in 1894
100 FUN to 1 YANG
Chemul'po (Inch'on) Mint and Yongsan (Seoul Suburb) Mint, 1892 to 1902
Year - expressions:
(right to left)
1892
* W ...
J 893
%L ZL 0 -fi
1894
^ = If 3l
1895
* VM W 2
1896
^ H. "S* 2 . . .
1897
^ 7C 3K ete
- r it *
1898 -
Continuation of year-expressions follows on page 79.
_EMPTY_
#25 1 FUN Brass, 3V4 Grams, 23 x 1+ mm.
Two Types
TYPE I
Legend: Great Korea
(three characters).
Yr. 501 (1892).
Yr. 504 (1895).
Yr. 505(1896)somewhat scarce
TYPE II
Korea, two characters.
Yr. 502 (1893).
Yr. 504 (1895).
(Obverse)
#26 5 FUN .980 copper, 7 gm., 27% x 1%+ mm.
Four Types
type I
Great Korea,
three characters.
Yr. 501 (1892).
Yr. 505 (1896).
TYPE III
Great Korea . . .
nine characters.
Yr 504 (1895).
Yr. 505 (1896).
TYPE II
Korea, two characters,
varieties of large and
small characters.
Yr. 502 (1893) lg. & sm.
Yr. 503 (1894) lg. only.
Yr. 504 (1895) lg. only.
Yr. 505 (1896) lg. & sm.
TYPE IV
T& gm.. 27% x 2 mm.
Great State (of Korea)
2 char., var. lg. & sm.
Kuang Mu 2 (1898) lg. & sn
Kuang Mu 3 (1899) rare.
Kuang Mu 6 (1902).
(Obverse)
#27 % YANG
.7S0/.2SO cupro-nickel, 4V2 + and
S gm., 20 y2 x 2 and 2 mm.
TYPE I G. K.
Yr. 501 (1892).
Five Types
TYPE II K.
Yr. 502 (1893).
Yr. 503 (1894).
Yr. 504 (1895). Yr 505 (189g)
TYPE III G. S. (of K.)
Kuang Mu 1 (1897) scarce
Kuang Mu 2 (1898) ch. lg. & sm.
K. M. 3 (1899) scarce, ch. lg. & sm.
Kuang Mu 4 (1900) scarce.
Kuang Mu 5 (1901) scarce.
TYPE IV
"Class A" counterfeit.
"Mint sport"
striking from
unfinished die.
TYPE V
"Class B" counterfeit.
71
#28 1 YANG .800 silver, S'A Grams, 22V2 x 1*4+ mm.
Three Types
deleted from
Type I.
Edges reeded.
Type I Great Korea
501st year (1892).
Writer has a copper
striking of year 501.
Type II Korea
502nd year (1893).
Type III Great State...*
Kuang Mu 2 (1898)
closely spaced YANG.
Kuans Mu 2 (1898)
wide YANG.
#29 5 YANG
.900 silver, 416 Grains,
38 x 2'/2 + mm.
Reeded.
501st year (1892) somewhat
scarce.
( ?) 502nd yearin the same
category as the "3 Mun" of
1886an extremely doubtful
"questionable".
#30 1 WHAN (Won)
.900 silver, 416 Grains,
38 x 2%+ mm.
Reeded.
502nd year (1893) only.
Very rare.
Dies t I -
1 WHAN retired the archaic Yang
unit and sot rid of the offending
"Great" from 5 YANG's "Great Ko-
era" legend. It is curious that onmun
characters for "Five Yang" were left
on the WHAN.
* The name adopted for Korea in 1897
bearing reference to her great unification
and achievement in the time of unified Silla,
Paekche and KoguryQ.
72-
MINT WRAPPING
This is a roll of fifty 5 FUNs in their
original mint wrapper. The author
noticed tiny flakes of bright copper
falling out on his first inspection of
this roll (the roll had been opened
before). The paper, from pulp, is yel-
lowing white, and the inscription on
the side and end is as follows:
This black-ink lettering seems to
have been put on with a hand-inked
manual stamper, possibly of rubber.
Sealing one end of the roll is the char-
acter Chon ( iflL ) the mint name's
abbreviation, in red cinnabar color.
A few of the coins have streaks and
splotches of a gun-metal blue color
crystallized oil from the mint ma-
chinery.
The coins, dated 1896, differ in re-
Copper
Money
Two
Yang
5
Chon
(Mint seal)
verse (dragon) dies. One die shows
feeble imprint while the other was
harder struck into the flan as well as
the 5 in its 5 FUN having been re-
engraved. This heavy-struck reverse,
however, was "married" with an ob-
verse die not as sharp as that used
with the feeble-print reverse. Except
for some streaks, all the coins are in
a toned but still bright and "frost un-
circulated" state.
Though these coins are not rare (or common either in uncirculated state) an original
mint wrapping of them is an extreme rarity. As a collector's item such a roll is, of course,
tremendous. Just as a person would not chop an extremely rare coin to pieces, so he would
keep together this kind of old mint roll.
-73-
But Korea was not to percolate into
the complex brew of modern eco-
nomics by concocting modern coins.
Had there been nothing else wrong,
fate was in the fact that making
money in Korea remained too much
a money-making concern, and from
that fateful fact was to parade a fi-
nancial spectacle supreme. In time
past, hole-coppers had come from
around 40 different mint agencies;
like hairs on the corpse of those
outlived hole-coppers, this sort of
coinage-responsibility delegating could
sprout yst lively growth. There was
now a profitable and popular %
YANG nickel coin, so while spare
commissions of other coins appeared,
nickels belched forth. In that nickel
pis the king's finger consisted of
legalizing nickel coining for "patent
fee" payers. The O.K.-counterfeits
were to be of mint quality, but there
was no enforcing that provision, nor
did the king trouble much about more
than his fee. But if the king's ideals
be contorted, what shall be said when
officials could secretly rent dies from
the government mint? If there were
something lacking to truly beatify
such monstrous monetary malapro-
pisms, there was lack no more when
came "illicit" import of fake nickels.
If there could be one thing left to do
to complete the confusion, installing
foreign monies to serve the foreign
trade did it. Such was the make of
rationalized Korean-nickel nihilism.
Nickels, nickels, nickels- alas
and alackaday they geysered into
the hapless community in a sprawling?
deluge! It was as if the nation's
traditionally unstable economy had
detonated like some coin bomb Brob-
dingnagian. And from the immense
blast, to what could the nickels fall
back? To the ocean of fluctuating
bullion-coinage beneath; to the eco-
nomic hodge podge of Southern and
Northeastern Korea keeping to Yop-
chon and Central and Northwestern-
ites clamoring for nickels while North-
ern Koreans used a mix-up of Czarist
and Chinese coins with Yopchon and
nickels both. The compounded con-
fusion was now concatenated. Trans-
porting this financial rubble often
cost more than the very coins; on top
of that, a "money handler" was need-
ed for examining each and every piece
to tell counterfeits and O.K.-counter-
feits from genuine. The victimized
Koreans took refuge in credit devices
such as this: to pay tax from out-
lying districts to the capital, taxes
were collected by district governors
and used by them, or lent to local
merchants, to buy local produce which
was sent to the capital. The proceeds,
minus applicable merchant fee, were
paid the government on behalf of the
governors. (The converse was gover-
nors or merchants loaning money to
the government on security of taxes
forthcoming!) Astonishing? The un-
gainly specie simply cost too much
to handle like ordinary money.
The nickel brontosaurus galloped
free for years; steps for control were
futile. Yi Yong-ik, Minister of the
Army, was given control of the mint
and the military authorized to arrest
counterfeiters, but the request to the
Japanese Legation to stop import of
Japanese Korean-nickel fakes ended
in stamping them aboard ship at sea
and import of hand-coining appara-
tuses complete with flans to sell at
Korean market. Real control did not
begin until 1905, when genuine nickels
and "Class A" counterfeits at half
face value and "Class B" counterfeits
at 1/5 face were redeemed. Under
Japan's gold standard, other denomi-
nations of the Issue Commencing in
1894 also were redeemed at half value;
coin prices throughout rose and fell
with the market price for metal.
Candid comments on the state of
things then are entertaining. A form-
er (now deceased) missioner in Korea
has told a story of Korean nickels
somewhat like this:
four rates for nickels among money-changers:
(1), the top rate, for government nickels;
(2), somewhat lower, for Grade A counter-
feits; (3), still lower, for Grade B counter-
feits which are pretty good from an oblique
angle, and (4), the lowest, for Grade C*
counterfeits which can only be passed after
dark.
The President of the Osaka Copper
Works, landed with the Mint at Che-
mul'po and in a state of grace with
the emperor, in 1898 got leave to en-
large the mint for what was to climax
in half the money in all Korea
becoming nickels. If this be called
an elephantine behemoth, one sixth
the money in counterfeit nickels
was that elephant's trumpeting pro-
boscis. And whether from keeping
his faith in his experience or from
squelching the precedent of a fair
administration, the emperor's own
closing control over Korea's mint was
a miracle of monopoly. If history is
histrionic, a sort of governmental
Gotterdammerung was the emperor
being awarded FORTY per cent of
the produce from the subsequent mint
in nickels, of course poor tribute
to his 'benevolence' though that share
might have been.
Having suddenly decided to have the
mint nearer the capital, the emperor
chose a new site about two miles from
Seoul. Transfer began in 1898, just
after one Y. Mikami was made Act-
ing Mint Superintendent, an office
which he retained until 1904 in the
new mint.
The government used to issue money under
a system of a sort but now we have
nothing but nickels which fetch huge coin-
ing profits. Everyone is paid in nickels, yet
to amass only $2 (ignore the fell swoop of
a month's pay) takes 100* of these trying
little coins which is no small pocketful
whether in my ecclesiastical trousers or my
congregations's Korean sleeves. Now the so
called government sells licenses to mint 'nice'
nickels, but what a pity for it that its nice
profitable fakes have to suffer circulating
with those products of such mean dishonesty,
the licenseless-made fakes. There are now
* Inflation reduced face values 60% and
more in those days.
* The official nomenclature included no
"Class C" nickel ( !)
75
A country's coinage is not really
complete without commemoratives;
Korea met this need with provocative,
if controversial, charm. In commemo-
ration of her freedom, a powerful
contrast in her coinage came out in
1896. The Treaty of Shimonoseki in
April, 1895, ending the Sino-Japanese
War, provided that China recognize
Korea as independent. In 1896, honor-
ing the new freedom, the Korean king
adopted a new regnal title, Kun Yang,
and coin-momentos were cast. Why
cast instead of struck? The poured
coin was 'ancestral' money; casting
was right for special coins departing
from struck modern issues.
Surrounding the value of #32 and
#33 is Pulro-ch'o, a fabled "grass of
longivety visible only to the pure of
heart". Within the beaded circle of
the reverse is a T'ae Guk symbol. Yu
Ja-ho reports these not-for-circulation
coins cast between the first of Janu-
ary and the end of February, 1896.*
Yu, who was strictly anti-Japanese,
has given the fantastic opinion* that
these coins are not on official records
because the freedom the coins pro-
claimed was only a Japanese expedi-
ency and that such dismal objects
were therefore expunged from record!
While awaiting proof of Yu's idea,
the writer of this book wonders in-
deed about it. It may be fantastic-
but there are fantastic stories in
modern Korean coins.
Yu mentions a Tae Han T'ong Bo**
cast coin as likely being a private
make fantasy "commemorative".
* Yu Ja-ho. op. cit., pp. 662-65.
* Ibid., p. 815-6.
1896 COMMEMORATIVES
1896
$T- it U
#31 Five Fun
Bronze, 8 - Grams, 31 nun.
Kun 5
rency Cur- * *
Yang Fun
Extremely rare.
*From The "Curve" Furnace of the
[Premier] (Government) Mint.
#32 Five Chon
Pewter, 9 Grams, 31 mm.
Value not circled
5
Chon
Extremely rare.
"Great Korean Nation
Kun Yang Original Year
Valuable Money"
#33 Five Chon
Bronze, 9y2 Grams, 31 mm.
Value circled.
5 "Great Korean Nation
Kun Yang Original Year
Chon Valuable Money"
Extremely rare.
Dies adjusted f T .
1896 was the original year of Kun Yang and 1897 the second; however, in October.
1897, the Korean king proclaimed himself emperor, a higher international title, and adopted
a new regnal title, Kuang Mu. A new Kuang Mu reign started, 1897 its year of origin. 189S
became the second and year-expressions thus continued. "Kuang Mu" means "military
illustriousncss*'. This emperor-reign dating ended the dynastic dating on the coins.
7fr~
It is well to note that each emperor's reign overlapped the other. Kuani; Mu's lasted
"eleven" years from October, 1897, until August. 1907, when he was forced to abdicate to
his son, who took the regnal title of Yung Hi. His son reigned "four" years from August,
1907, to August, 1910, when Korea's freedom was lost. "Yung Hi" translates to "prosper-
ous happiness"; Yung Hi was feeble-minded, and his accession was through Japanese efforts.
Japan, for whom Kuang Mu's own personal 'military illustriousness' was a bit too ram-
bunctious, found Yung Hi's feeble-minded "prosperous happiness" to its liking.
The failing of Korean money in
foreign trade was filled by the Jap-
anese silver ONE YEN coin in the
port cities of Pusan, Inch'on and
Wonsan. But when Japan went on
the gold standard in 1897, the Yen
supply was cut off. Yen coins then
"stamped" at the Japanese Osaka
Mint and its Tokyo agency were an
"emergency measure"* until the Bank
of Japan's and Japanese Dai Ichi
Ginko (bank's) paper money could
replace them. The silver Yen had
taken hold in Korea well; in the sum-
mer of 1897, 3 to 3 Ms million were
estimated circulating, and John Mc-
Leavy Brown, the American Chief
Commissioner of Korean Customs,
took stamped Yen for customs pay-
ments.
Japanese sources** tell that Yen
coins were "stamped" for Korea thus:
The Dai Ichi Ginko, having heard fears
voiced by Japanese merchants on having to
use Korean monies from loss of the silver
Yen. in August, 1897, presented a "Private
Opinion on the Coinage System of Korea"
to the Bank of Japan. The opinion stressed
the Yen's importance in Korea and suggested
this if the gold standard were adopted: that
the Yen silver in the three ports of Korea
and in Seoul, regardless of being owned by
the Korean government or by individual
* Sic. Baron E. Shibusawa, Translation.
Report on Currency Adjustment in Korea
(Tokyo. 1911) pp. 90-1.
**Ibid.; also M. Matsukata, Report on the
Adoption of the Gold Standard in Japan
(Tokyo, 1899) p. 326.
Koreans or Japanese, be "stamped" on ap-
plication of the owner and then be used for
the time being in the open ports for foreign
trade. The Bank of Japan, after consulting
the Ministry of Finance, gave permission.
Exchanged at par value for unstamped Yen,
a total of 330,000 "stamped'' Yen went to
Korea beginning October, 1897,
Korea was one among many locales
to use "stamped" Yen coins. The fol-
lowing is the account of how Japan
came to "stamp" her ONE YEN silver
coin in the first place: Japan's gold
standard, caused by unstable silver
prices, ordered recall of the silver
ONE YEN coins in which recall Japan
took a 7% loss. To prevent the coins'
being redeemed and disposed of time
and again with multiple losses, Japan
stamped a demonetization mark*
"silver" on them. They were then sold
to China, Korea, Formosa, Hong Kong,
Wei-Hai-Wei Island and to foreign
banks (a small amount went back
to the Osaka Mint) and because of
the Yen's established popularity they
were welcomed. Japan both dumped
her depreciating silver stockpile and
got influence in places like Korea
which needed the coins.
This marking, in view of its tan-
gency to Korean coins and the plan-
ned addenda to this book, is given
an "A" (addenda) numbering.
* As opposed to "stamp" a loose term, and
"counterstamp" a term which has been
wrongly applied to these coins.
JAPANESE DEMONETIZED YEN
(Used in Korea)
The demoneti-
zation mark is
4 Yz -\- mm. in
diameter.
Regular-issue Type I Yen, Regular-issue Type II Yen,
stamped. stamped.
77
The new mint was by Han-gang
River at Yongsan, a suburb then about
two miles from Seoul. Mint Chemist,
Mint Engineer, Mint Over-Director
and Mint Under-Director became offi-
cial mint posts while the Osaka Cop-
per Works still supplied machinery
and materials.
The Yongsan Mint's gaping maw
disgorged nickels, and to meet the
demands of government and king,
the further bloating of the currency
system was the order of the day.
Nickel dies dated 1898 were used until
usable no longer; replacements were
carved chiefly with the same date
heedless of passing time. The Chon
Hwan Kuk at Yongsan attained tower-
ing influence and power.
Czarist-Russian Korea was now to
join the game of Korean coins; Rus-
sian interests were disturbed with
thriving Japanese Korea. In Novem-
ber, 1897, Eugenii Ivanovitch Aliexiev
of Russia was made Korea's Financial
Advisor. The "First Asia Branch" of
the Russo-Korean Bank was formed
in Korea on March 1, 1898; article
four of its charter provided nothing
less ostentatious than forthwith tak-
ing charge of Korea's national reve-
nue, coinage issue, and bond-issue
payment (the bank's backing: 500,000
Rubles)! In that bank, which was
housed in the Russian legation in
Seoul, Ch'i Ch'ang-han, Mint Chief
Technician in 1899, started designing
a set of new Korean coins with a
crowned Russian-style quasi-Eagle.
Not long after the finish of the new
mint in the Spring of 1900, two coin-
die engravers from, of all places,
Japan's mint, were hired to help with
the proceedings. J. Tanaka, the first,
stayed from October, 1900, to June,
1903, and I. Maita, the other, from
October, 1901, until the Korean mint's
close in 1904. Tanaka carved dies for
Vi YANGs and for the HALF WON
and Ten Won in the Quasi-Eagle
Series while Maita carved the other
dies.* However, Aliexiev's fall was
explosively rapid. He was too hot a
plate of Russian borsch for the other
land-grabbing proclivities of the time
to swallow. Japan's feelings were
hurt; the British Navy demonstrated;
the Russo-Korean Bank and Aliexiev's
Financial Advisorship were torpedoed
respectively in April and July, 1898,
with the help of the powerful pro-
British-Japanese progressives, Yi
Sang-je, Yun Ch'i-ho and So Che-p'il
(Philip Jason). But with the insertion
of powerful anti-Japanese (thereby
pro-Russian) Yi Yong-ik as Korean
Finance Minister, Russia got a sharp
edge cutter of her own into the Ko-
rean cake; official regulations for the
new Russian-Korean coinage were
served on February 12, 1901; ten days
later the Japanese silver Yen was
outlawed**. But the Russian Issue
was no success the almighty catar-
act of nickels overwhelmed all other
monies and swept them before it.
Japan, moreover, to keep her Korean
mint foothold, had had Baron T. Me-
gata sent over in October, 1898. The
rapid arrival of the Russo-Japanese
War and Megata's overtures on throt-
tling the activity of the Korean mint
settled the Russian-Korean coinage
matter.
Sic, NPJJ, op. cit., pp. 143-4. Writer
Y. Koga did not know of the HALF DOLLAR,
of 1900 Twenty Won, or of 1903 Ten Won
at the time of his writing.
**And the American Customs Commission-
er, having disliked the fate of the silver Yen,
kept on taking duties in it. A government
order ignored by an agency of the same gov-
ernment attests the pandemonium then cur-
rent.
78-
Year - expressions:
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
f$ m fc
Quasi-Eagle Essays
TEST COINS
20 Chon (20<f US)
Per regulation: silver/copper
.800/.200, 5H Grams.
22% x iy2+ mm.
One contributor claims he saw
this, and a 1902 dating of it
is listed in one reference. Not
numbering it, therefore, is per-
haps too conservative.
#34 HALF DOLLAR
Silver .800, 13V2 Em.,
31 x 2'/2 mm.
Reeded.
Kuang Mu 3rd year (1899).
Extremely rare.
Five Won ($5) (?)
Not seen; recorded as a question-
able perhaps with 1901 dating.
#35 Ten Won
To have been gold/copper.
.900/.100, 8% gm.
21 + x 2 mm.
Reeded.
Kuang Mu 5th year (1901)
Kuang Mu 7th year (1903)
All struck in copper: ex. rare.
#36 Twenty Won
Composition as above; gold coin
wt. 16%+ gm. 29 x 2 mm.
Reeded.
Kuang Mu 4th year (1900)
Kuang Mu 6th year (1902)
In copper, ex. rare.
A die inscribed "Kuang Mu Year"
is shown in Nishiyoshi.**
Dies f T.
* 1901 gold striking claimed by a good reference. At this writing, a gold striking has not
been seen by this writer; ho therefore tentatively regards it.
** See bibliography, p. 92.
79
FOURTH ISSUE
The Russian Issue
100 Chon to 1 Won
Yongsan (Seoul Suberb) Mint, 1901 and 1902
#37 1 CHON (le)
.98O/.O10/.O10 copper/zinc/tin,
8 Grams, 28 x IV2+ mm.
Kuang Mu 6th year (1902 1.
Very rare.
#38 5 CHON
750/.250 cupro-nickel, 4V2-f Grams.
20y2 f x 2 mm.
Kuang Mu 6th year (1902).
Rare.
The crenulated border on these
often is not well struck up.
#39 HALF WON (50<r)
.800/.200 silver/copper, 13V2
Grams, 31 x 2y2 mm.
Reeded.
Kuang Mu 5th year (1901).
Rare.
Dies 1 I .
There is a story about these coins
running as follows:
(l)
(2)
Th bird
Falcon.
Th
on the coins is a Korean
coins
(a) are akin in weight and unit to
Japanese coins, not to Russian.
(b) have romanizations like those of
a later Japanese-Korean coinage
and
(c) suggest that the HALF DOLLAR
weighs half a Japanese Trade Dol-
lar.
(3) 1899-1905 politics may have caused
design change.
(4) The coins were
(a) struck in Osaka or
(b) from Osaka-made dies and
(c) from Japanese engravers who
would not have carved Russianist
coin dies.
(5) Wear on some pieces
(a) denotes at least an experimental
circulation, suggesting
(b) that the Japanese directly and
through Chinese controlled Korean
finance; therefore,
(6) The coins were possibly experimental
Japanese issues.
There is both thought and origin-
ality in this opinion and its supporting
claims. But, unfortunately, they are
ill-grounded. This series of coins was
Czarist-Russian produced; the Jap-
anese were slightly involved, but not
by way of ordering the coins.
In answer to claim (1): that bird
has been called an Eagle, a Falcon,
a Phoenix, and a Cockerel by a good
many more people than this many
birds. It so happens that the fowl
is a mixture of Eagle, Falcon, and
Phoenix, Ch'i Ch'ang-han's portrayal
of Russian-Korean amity. The crown,
an euphemistic Czarist crown, is over
a head that can be called both a
Russian Eagle's and a Korean Fal-
con's. But not too much likeness to
Russia's crowned Eagle was achieved
there is a lot more of "the power
of positive suggestion" than of a
Russian crowned Eagle. The bird's
breast, adorned with T'ae Guk and
Trigrams, National Symbol of Korea,
sprouts wings festooned with more
T'ae Guk emblems. The claws grasp
a globe and sheathed sword, and the
tail is a simple form of the ornate
edition on Korean Phoenix-design coins
just following this series. The wreath
motif of the 1894-issue obverses stay-
ed the same on these Russianist coins.
Even if the bird were only a Korean
Falcon, and thus un-Russian, it should
be noted that it then would be also
un-Japanese, making claim (1) ir-
relevant to the story's hypothesis (6).
Replying to (2) (a): let attention
be fixed on the forerunner, the HALF
DOLLAR. When it was made, Dol-
lar had become soverign in the Far
East in form of adopted trade coins;
even China was changing its Tael unit
for "Dollars" of 7.2 Mace. Then in
this series which the HALF DOLLAR
keynoted under the unit, Dollar,
weights being the same as Japanese
coin of the period means nothing;
Dollar was what Japan had adopted;
she did not control it. Japan's Dollar
was Yen while Korea's Dollar was
Won. In this case, Yen and Won
happen to be like two lines construct-
ed parallel to a third line; they do
parallel each other, but the third line,
Dollar, is the beginning, a fact not
to be forgotten. There is no mistaking
the monetary unit of Dollar on the
1899 Korean coin constructed from it,
a coin signaling the whole Russian
Korean series. That the rest of the
coins were nbt like Russia's Ruble
was due to prevailing 'dollarism' in
the Far East. Russia had to fit with
the 'dollar of the times', not a 'Ruble
of the future'. The plan began with
a Korean trade coin under Russian
influence with a Russianistic design,
a whole Russo-Korean coinage system
being right around the corner. "Dol-
lar" instead of "Won" indicates that
this HALF DOLLAR is a trade coin,
and a Half Dollar coin avoided the
toppling and controversial full-unit
silver coins.
Concerning (2) (b): It is known
that Japanese adopted the 1901 Rus-
sian regulations, leaving the romaniza-
tions unchanged.
Answering (2)(c): The HALF
DOLLAR, being .800 fine, is not half
a Japanese Trade Dollar.
Of (3): the politics were inter-
national, and the statement is true,
but the design had nothing to do with
Japan.
(4) (a) asks, in effect, that the fol-
lowing be accepted: from the operat-
ing, capable, and lucrative Korean
mint, Korean dies were sent to Japan
for making coins. The mint in Korea
was on a strong working footing.
Japanese engravers had been hired
and were carving the dies which were
to strike millions of the coins.
Re: (4) (b), some of the Quasi
Eagle pieces are shown in a pictorial
record of coins from Osaka-made dies.
Here is part of one page. The cap-
tions are:
"[Japanese]
were invited over
to make this."
Japanese Osaka-Mint engravers' being
in the Korean mint put these coins
in this pictorial reference of the
Osaka Mint just like some Chinese
coins from Osaka-made dies*. It is
perhaps this which has caused points
Such as China's 1903 HU POO Tael series.
SI
(4) (a) and (b); however, the evi-
dence of the coins' having been made
in Korea is strengthened by the illus-
tration shown from this reference.
"Japanese were invited over to make
this" can hardly refer to something
coming from the Osaka Mint. It refers
to the fact that Japanese engravers
went to Korea for making the dies.
The answer to (4) (c) is that those
two Japanese were coin-die artists not
hired for decisions or opinions in
financial policy. They did the work
as they were told.
(5) (a) is correct to say "a circula-
tion". "Abortive" is a better descrip-
tion than "experimental".
Re: (5)(b): The Russian series
was for a Russian, not a Japanese
Korea. How Japanese through Chi-
nese controlled Korean finance would
be interesting to tell of were it rele-
vant or correct. Since it is neither,
it needs only to be said that the Jap-
anese themselves did indeed control
Korea, but not so fully as to keep
Russia from having her place in the
sun.
So (6), the conclusion, is not pos-
sible.
The HALF DOLLAR spearheaded
the Quasi-Eagle Series in terms of
Dollar, and the other coins, starting
in 1900, followed along. Nothing thus
far seen by this writer shows that
any of these coins came from Japan.
Where, then, may be seen Japan's
hand in these pieces? It is in supply
of flans, mint superintendent, supply
of engravers, and gold-standard test
coins. Japan was the only land in
the Far East to that time which
had steadily, widely, and methodical-
ly issued modern gold coins. In choos-
ing the style of Japanese gold pieces,
Korea, having adopted the gold stand-
ard in 1897 just like Japan, must have
had Japan's success with gold coins
in mind; copying Japanese gold was
common sense and doubtless related
only by chance to Japanese anticipa-
tions which, until 1905, did no coin-
producing in Korea. And the Chon
Hwan Kuk at Yongsan, to keep up
appearances of busying with other
than the interminable nickels, doubt-
less welcomed Russianist pieces as it
might have welcomed nearly anything
at all in its candor.
Russia's defeat in the Russo-Jap-
anese War was opportune for a full
Japanese permeation of Korean fi-
nance; in 1904, Baron Megata was
made Financial Advisor; the Korean
nickel-mint met a deserved end on
November 22. In May, 1905, its ma-
chinery and 13 coining presses went
to Osaka where future Korean coins
were to be struck. The now defunct
Korean mint, ignobly renamed "Melt-
ing Department of the Central Treas-
ury" began to destroy its stocks of
Vi YANGs while silver coins and
bullion were sent to Osaka for melt-
ing, these soon being followed by the
stores of Russianist 5 CHON nickels
which were chopped in half and later
sold as scrap metal (26,191% pounds
of them) to a commercial metal firm
in Japan for 7,857.45 Yen.
2
LIST OF MINT REPORTS
Though the author visited the Osaka Mint to gather this data from the
archives, it differs from amounts reported minted on pages 74-5 in the refer-
ence, "Report on Currency Adjustment in Korea" which amounts are shown
in parentheses. Fiscal reckonings are not known to have been used in these
coinage reports.
ISSUE OF ABOUT 1890 "... a few [hundred pieces] ..." (?)
ISSUE OF 1891
5 and 10 MUN
1 WARN (Hwan)
ISSUE COMMENCING IN 1894
1 FUN
5 FUN
Va. YANG
1 YANG
5 YANG and 1 WHAN (Won)
approximately 4,000
approximately 1,300
7
?
381,051,954 pes. withdrawn from 1905 to 1909.
JAPANESE SILVER 1
RUSSIAN ISSUE
1 CHON
5 CHON
HALF WON
YEN STAMPED
19,923
20,450,000 stamped.
2.8 million (approximately)
1,830,675
ISSUES COMMENCING IN 1905 and 1907
Bronze % CHON
1905 4,000,800
1906 20,003,200
1907 10,001,600
1908 16,002,600
1909 1,000,160
1910 not reported
1 CHON 1905 3,000,500
1906 10,001,600
1907 10,001,600
1908 8,001,200
1909 1,000,160
1910 3,005,600
Nickel 5 CHON 1905 20,003,040
1906
1907 10,001,560
1909 4,000,640
Silver 10 CHON 1906 2,001,110
1907 4,702,600
1908 4,002,210
1909 2,501,380
1910 7,003,860
20 CHON 1905 2,501,510
1906 1,000,605
1907 - 2,501,505
1908 2,001,205
1909 2,001,205
1910 2,001,205
HALF WON 1905 1,800,984
1906 400,282
1907 1,000,704
1908 1,400,982
1909
ISSUE OF 1910 (The gold coins)
5 Won 1908 10,022
1909 not reported
10 Won 1906 5,012
1909 not reported
20 Won 1906 2,506
1908 25,052
1909 25,052
1910 40,082
-)
24 mil.)
800 thous.)
21 mil.)
8 mil. 200 thous.)
-)
13 mil.)
10 mil.)
6 mil. 800 thous.)
9 mil. 200 thous.)
)
17 mil. 940 thous.)
2 mil. 60 thous.)
16 mil.)
4 mil.)
2 mil.)
2 mil. 400 thous.)
6 mil. 300 thous.)
)
)
1 mil.)
2% mil.)
1% mil.)
3 mil.)
2 mil.)
)
600 thous.)
1 mil. 200 thous.)
1 mil.)
1 mil.)
400 thous.)
10 thous.)
5 thous.)
2,500)
40 thous.)
25 thous.)
)
87
MONETARY DESIGNATIONS
Below are the six monetary designations on Korean modern coins:
Mun ... J&-' (officially) 1/5C U.S.
Fun . . . 'jt 1/5C
Chon ... | post-1894 : 2c; post-1901 : 1C
Yang, Niang . . . |4] 24- c in 1885, 10c in 1886 and 20<r beginning 1892
Hwan . . H] $1.
Won . . . IH $1.
MINT STANDARDS ON SIZE AND WEIGHT
In Section V, measurements are not carried out further than half-Gram
and half-Millimeter. Testing has shown that weights and measures of the
coins, even when coins are in mint state, do not stay at the mint standard.
Moreover, practically all the coins are circulated and tarnished as well, unless
they have been subjected to the horrible crime of cleaning which is worse..
The inquirer ordinarily would do best by not trying to measure and weigh
more accurately than to the nearest half-Gram and half-Millimeter. However,
for whatever it may be worth, the available mint standards are given below.
COIN WEIGHT IN GRAMS DIAMETER IN MILLIMETERS
Quasi-Eagle 20 Chon 5.3914 24.422
#35 8.3333 (for gold coin) 21.21
#36 16.6665 (for gold coin) 28.785
#37 8.280 27.876
#38 4.6654 20.604
#39 13.4783 30.906
#40 3.5640 21.8
#41 2.100 19.1
#42 7.1280 27.876
#43 4.200 23.6
#44 4.6(ii> 20.6
#45 2.69* 17.58
#46 2.250 16.97
#47 ... 5.391 22.42
#48 .. 4.050 20.30
#49 13.47 30.91
#50 10.125 27.27
#51 4.1666 16.970
#52 8.3333 21.212
#53 16.6666 28.788
OUTLINE AND REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTIONS
What to collect is indeed one's own choice. These lists are for those who
would like suggestions.
AN OUTLINE COLLECTION
Of Early Chinese Coins: Antiquity to Circa 200 B.C.
Cowry Shapes (p. 5)
A cowry (ex-archaeological)
A cowry-replica"
An "Ant-Nose"
Knives (pp. 6 & 7)
An early large knife
A small knife
Spades (pp. 8-17)
A large hollow-socket spade
A large flat spade
A small flat spade
An odd flat spade
Round Coins (pp. 18 & 19)
A round coin
Of Korea:
Pre-Modern
An AME object (pp. 2-5) or a Ming
Knife (p. 7) or a Chinese Half
Liang copper (pp. 18 & 19)*
Ca. 1100 A.D. hole-coppers3 pieces:
Clerkly, Cursive and Seal char.
(pp. 29-33)
A ca. 1400 hole-copper (p. 35)
A ca. 1625 hole-copper (p. 38)
Yopchon: period 1678-1883 3 pes.
large, medium, and small sizes
(pp. 46-8)
A coin charm (pp. 49-50)
A 100-value Yopchon (p. 51)
A cast silver piece (p. 52)
A 5-value Yopchon (p. 53)
Modern Korea
19th Century
5 YANG
(P. 72)
19th & 20th Centuries
Japanese Demonetized Yen
(P. 77)
20th Century
HALF WON
(p. 85)
A REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTION
Of Early Chinese Coins: Antiquity to Circa 200 B.C.
Cowry Shapes (p. 5)
A cowry (ex-archaeological)
Three types cowry replicas"
Two types "Ant Noses"
Knives (pp. 6 & 7)
An early large knife
A curved-shape knife
A Ming knife
A straight knife
Spades (pp. 8-17)
Hollow socket: big and smaller-
2 pes.
Large flat: Liang 'trade coin' type
and one other type2 pes.
Small flat: pointed- and square-
foot - 2 pes.
Odd flat: two types
Round Coins (pp. 18 & 19)
Rimless and rimmed 2 pes.
Moulds
A mould or mould-fragment
Beware of forgeries
*These early Chinese coins, having then circulated widely in Korea, can substitute for an
AME object.
Of Korea:
Pre-Modem
An AME object (pp. 21-5) or a Ming Knife (p. 7) or a
Chinese Half Liang copper (pp. 18 & 19). See p. 21.
Ca. 1100 A.D. hole-coppers 6 pes. (pp. 29-33)
Tong Guk T'ong Bo
Tong Guk Chung Bo
Hae Dong T'ong Bo
Hae Dong Chung Bo
Sam Tan T'ong Bo
Sam Han Chung Bo
Clerkly,
Cursive,
Seal,
and
P'albun
characters
Ca. 1400 coppers: two varieties (p. 35)
Ca. 1625 coppers: two varieties (p. 38)
(1678-1800 large size
(1800-1850 medium size
(1850-1883 small size
Coin charms: large and small (pp. 49-50)
Yopchon 24 pes.
(pp. 46-8)
}Two dozen
different
mints
UnderRegent C A 100-value Yopchon, 1866 (p. 51)
TaeWonGun J Silver 1, 2, 3 Chon 3 pes. (p. 52)
and j C-value Yopchon, 1883: large and small2 pes.
KingKojong L. (p. 53)
Modern Korea
19TH CENTURY
Under ('First (pro-Korean) Issue: A Struck Yopchon (p. 65)
J Second (pro-Chinese) Issue: 5, 10 MUN & 1 WARN (p. 66)
dynastic ~\
dating
Third (pro-Japanese) Issue:
L I WHAN (pp. 70-2)
1 & 5* FUN, %*, 1, 5 YANG,
* Also under regnal dating.
19TH & 20TH CENTURIES Japanese Demonetized Yen (p. 77)
20TH CENTURY
Under f Fourth (pro-Russian) Issue: 1, 5 CHON & HALF WON (p. 80)
, J Fifth & Sixth (pro-Japanese) Issues: 1, 5, 10, 20 CHON &
regnal * HALF WON (pp. 84-5)
dating L Seventh (pro-Japanese) Issue: Ten Won gold (p. 86)
90
IN CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE
Contributors
E. A. Parker San Francisco, California
C. P. Song Bank of Korea
Isao Gunji Superintendent, Gallery of Numismatic Collections, Bank of Japan
Young Chan Kim Deputy Governor, Bank of Korea
Kyoshi Urushibata Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan
Daisuke Kitaura Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan
Masato Kitaura Tokyo, Japan (Photographer)
Sosuke Sekine Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan
Yasuo Sekine Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan (Translator)
Yoshinori Yamaga Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan (ANA #15270)
Motoichi Okamura Mint at Osaka, Japan
Hiroshi Ogawa Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan
Keibun Tanaka Tokyo Numismatic Society, Japan
Alexander W. Ritchie Berkeley, California
Sidney Haas Richmond, California
American Numismatic Society, New York
New York Botanical Garden
Howard F. Bowker Oakland, California
Leonel C. Panosh Charles V. Kappen
California State Numismatic Association
(Chiefly Calcoin News photoengravings Sections I-IV)
Eduard Kann Los Angeles, California
Hsi-Tseng Wen, A. M University of Southern California
M. L. Peterson Arlington, Virginia
Lee M. Hewitt Chicago, Illinois
Department of German, University of Southern California
Kenneth E. Stager County Museum of Los Angeles, California
Norman Jacobs, Ph.D New York
Stack's Numismatic Review
Maitland Stewart Los Angeles, California (Photographer)
Hong Oh Consul, Republic of Korea, Los Angeles, California
Staff, East Asiatic Library, University of California
P. K. Sohn Ass't Prof., Seoul National University, Korea
E. P. Ninneman Vallejo, California
Photographed chiefly from the Bank of Japan's, H. Bowker's, A. Ritchie's and
the author's collections.
Bibliography
A grouping of works from those studied minimizing duplicate information.
To list here all the works studied would be both lengthy and redundant.
J. A. Brudin The Coins of Korea (the Numismatist)July, 1900
Howard F. BowkerA Numismatic Bibliography of the Far East (ANS
Monograph #101), 1943. A Footnote to Wang's "Early Chinese Coinage"
(The Numismatist), June, 1953
Baron S. DeChaudoir Recueil De Monnaies de la Chine, du Japon, de la
Coree, d'Annam et de Java au nombre de plus de mille (St. Petersburg),
1842
Hase Chiomatsu Dai Ichi Ginko [Bank] 50 Years History Tokyo, 1926
J. and A. Erbstein Blatter fur Munzfrunde, Nos. 130-131, pgs. 1204 & 1219
June, 1887
Jiro Fujima Korean Coin History Seoul, Korea, 1919
C. T. Gardner The Coinage of Korea (Journal of the North China Branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. XXVII 1892-3
Hazard, Hoyt, Kim, Smith, Mercus Korean Studies Guide Berkeley, 1954
L. Newton Hayes The Chinese Dragon Shanghai, 1922
Homer B. Hulbert The Passing of Korea New York, 1906
Eduard KannThe Currencies of China 1926-7. The Numismatic Scrap-
book Magazine May, 1953. Catalog of Chinese Coins Los Angeles, 1954
Jun Kobayagawa Co. Circular Letter, November, 1910 Yokohama, Japan
Yoshimasa Koga, M. Ichihara, Henry A. Ramsden The Numismatic and
Philatelic Journal of Japan, vols. 1-4 1910-1914
Kanichi Kuroda On Originals Among Korean Coins (printed essay)
Japan, 1942
Terrier. De Lacouperie Catalogue of Chinese Coins from the VHth. Cent.
B.C., to A.D. 621 including the Series in the British Museum London, 1892
Count Matsukata Masayoshi Report on the Adoption of the Golden Standard
in Japan Tokyo, 1899
Ministry of Finance, Japan Zohei Kyoku (mint) 80 Years History, 1953
Haruo Nishiyoshi Land-of-the-Eastern-Sea Numismatic Publication (Korea),
vols. 1-12, 1934-1938
Cornelius Osgood The Koreans and Their Culture New York, 1951
H. A. Ramsden Corean Coin-Charms and Amulets Yokohama, Japan, 1913
W. C. Sakai Ancient Coins Obtainable in Korea and Manchuria (The
Numismatist) February, 1897
William F. Sands Undiplomatic Memories New York, 1930
F. J. Schjoth The Currency of the Farther East London, 1951
Seoul City Hall History of Seoul City (in Japanese) 3 Vols. Seoul, 1936
Baron Eiichi Shibusawa Translation, Currency Adjustment in Korea 1909
Frederick Starr Supplement to Ramsden's Korean Coin Charms and Amulets
Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Japan, Seoul, Korea, 1917
Ting Fu-pao An Encyclopedia of Old Coins Shanghai, 1938 (Coole 240)
M. W. de Visser The Dragon in China and Japan Amsterdam, 1913
Wang Yu-ch'iian Early Chinese Coinage (ANS Monograph #122)1951
E. T. C. Werner A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology Shanghai, 1932
Adolph Weyl Berliner Munzblatter, No. 65, pgs. 624-5 January, 1886
Stanley F. Wright Hart and The Chinese Customs Belfast, Ireland, 1950
Yu Ja-ho Korean Coinage Study (Choson Hwa P'e Go) Seoul, Korea, 1940
n
LIST OF VALUES
A coin book's price list may have
much more purpose than mere value-
estimating or -guessing. Sometimes
it is a "for sale" notice, sometimes
an upgrading of its author's coins,
sometimes a downgrading for him to
buy, sometimes his empirical reward
for having written the book on the
coins. Rarity-judging of the coins
themselves can be subordinated to
the price list; what its author has is
tremendous and what he still doesn't
is pretty good, but not what it would
be in rarity and worth were it in his
collection. When there is a buying
average of % "catalog value"
known, the pricer has only to lower
or raise the figure for himself and
friends. But price successes do not
stem so much from these aspirations
as they do from the success of pricers
as trustworthy persons. A success-
ful price list is assembled with care,
like the book it is supposed to en-
lighten. It does not dictate; it teaches.
But while teaching is an art, teach-
ing right pricings is something of an
art and a science.
It is hard to form even an opinion
when opinions may have practical
effect or any use at all. In this uni-
versally disputed and often very
prickly subject, he who fixes prices
keeps fixing them. Coins like these
change everywhere and continually
not often in value, but quite often
in price. Prices can change with the
person; when he is seller it is worth
this; when he is buyer it is worth
(ugh) that, and when he especially
wants it oh heavens!it is worth
only that little bit. (Were he to admit
to himself that it is worth more, he
fears paying more than he otherwise
would.) Let me show how the price
for a popular and rare piece can
gallop around (in the uncommon case
where there are several good records
of sale). For one such coin before
the Korean War I was offered $10,
then $15. Later on I sold one for $25
and it was sold later for $50. After
Korea's being in the news had sent
the price generally further up, I found
a gem specimen and paid a price
which pride does not allow me to
admit to now. Before the Korean
War, the price had centered around
$10. Now, in a price list, should I
say that this coin is back down to
$10 because the war is ended (a sly
design to control the market for con-
servatives and my own future buying)
or should I print a high pricing for
the liberal market and justify hav-
ing dearly bought my own piece? Or
to try to make everybody happy,
should I have computed a graph,
issuing periodical price lists, figuring
the right price as a point equidistant
between some opinions? When a nu-
mismatist must be, above all, a coin
fancier, and when a coin fancier may
be one who has bought a bargain or
sold for a generous amount, how can
each possibly like one price, or my
book's stating one? And just as no
point satisfies everybody, the matter's
importance can be overestimated
lines do not form for early Chinese
and Korean coins as they did for gaso-
line and stockings in World War II.
The woe of prices is that a profound
concern with them has perpetrated
too much "How much can I get for
it?" A sad commentary of our times
is that the tales of titanic deals, told
in the tone of voice with which chil-
dren tell ghost stories, make many a
person ponder whether he sold or
bought for too much or too little
until numismatics disappears behind
prices and coins change hands like
stocks and bonds. Grantedthere can
be some humor in 'pricimatics'. For
example, many sellers mark costs in
their own code on coin envelopes, and
I have seen many an otherwise re-
spectable numismatist, scholar, and
plutocrat wickedly delighted with
himself to crack someone else's code
and find out that when he sold this
one or that one he made 75<t. Now
there are people who might be so
unkind as to call this snooping, and
others yet so mean as to call it pica-
yune, but cost-code cracking is an
honored institution among price-
mitists, and many meaty six-bits in-
trigues, enjoining rich and poor price-
mitists alike, come of it. "After all",
we are told, "It's not the money; it's
the principle of the thing". But of
course. On the other hand, however, I
have seen the sour aspect of prici-
matics choke a student's research. I
was informed through a Korean diplo-
matic mission that it would "amount
approximately 1,500.00 U.S. Dollar"
for data for this book fromthe Minis-
tries of Education and Finance of
Korea. I suppose that if somebody's
imae-e of m- hadn't been Whee! RICH
AMERICAN I might have made fine
friendships as well as making this a
better book. What a pity that I
couldn't afford the knowledge from
and acquaintance with those vital
sources; government data on coinage
is the essence of coin-book raw ma-
terial. If I had acquired an axto
grind, Where would fall the blame?
Pricimatics. Just as force in New-
ton's solar systemvaried inversely
with the square of the distance,
pricimatic progress may derive from
a theory of astronomical inflation
which varies perversely with the pow-
er purported of the person to pay.
Pricimatics can get pretty frighten-
ing. I can scarcely believe a situation
where I can't even print a picture
of myself in my own book as custom
calls for fear that my own face might
brand me pricimatically as a Korean
coin "pigeon" wherever I might go!
But what does it all mean? It
means that one person's price is
usually not another's; it means that
if this book had a rigid pricing, some-
thing would break, and the fracture
might formin what confidence the
rest of the book has built in itself.
It means that while there is the col-
lector who would balk at anything
over $10 for my "pride" coin, many
another at $10 would be stuck with
downgraded specimens as well as with
disgruntled friends or customers. It
means that because there is, as in
any profession, the lunatic fringe, the
collector must use his own head to
avoid getting stung. It means that
one individual is usually not even
qualified to decree a detailed list of
his "agonizing reappraisals" unless
he is a reliable price statistician
whose task primarily is to find data
sources. I emphasize that I amnot
discrediting those who study carefully
for the price listings they publish;
I tell of price differences here of
manners and morals. All this means,
most of all, that a particular price is
no precedent; therefore, since there
are no set prices, one is not to feel
cheated if he sells even only moder-
ately high or buys thus cheaply. Of
course a person should do as well as
he can; the thing to avoid is making
an obsession of it. Besides price
publishing's being prone to promote
argument, make enemies, and murder
interest, no matter how well the aver-
age be computed, I think of the humor-
ous predicament of an author ac-
quaintance: after publishing his price
list, he offers to buy at "reasonable"
(lower) prices!
I primarily leave it to the good
sense of the collector to find out
what pricings are. The good sense
to join numismatic societies, to sub-
scribe to numismatic publications, to
get data personally fromsources
found to be reliable, to keep general-
ly informed, and to remember the fact
that in the coin business, the fine
old-fashioned laws of horsetrading
have not been repealed, are primary
lessons of coin collecting and common
sense.
Since pricing should be fromthe
buyer's wisdomand the seller's in-
tegrity, there is a core of this book's
"list of values", a rule which tran-
scends all others: have data and good
reasons for your idea of value, then
buy/sell for what you feel is right.
Once the collector is illuminated by
this rule as soon as he decides to
make use of it, not only he, but his
whole collecting community is edified
in direct proportion to his importance
and influence.
Since there are those who will re-
main fearful of being exploited if I, as
the author of the book on the coins,
show no price record at all, I should
show one, even if it may become con-
troversial. However much people may
ignore pricing remarks, they still
often like a 'pivot point from which
to ignore'. However, if the reader
doesn't know it already, let me say
that I hereby give him permission to
ignore this following record whenever
he likes. This is observation, not
pronouncement.
Coins with no rarity shown are common.
POPULAR COINS (needed
for representation, etc.)
Larger Coins
Fine
Common *2
Scarce
Uncirculated
or Superb
$5
Smaller Coins and
Base-Metal Coins
Fine
25(f
$2
Unc, Sup.
$1
$5
OTHER
Larger
Fine Unc. Sup.
$1
$2
*2
S4
Minor
Fine Unc, Sup.
26c;
$1.50
$1
2
Rare coins: ASampling* of Some Lower and Higher Pricings
GOLD SILVER BASE METAL
Have seen the Ten
Won, Craig 52. sell
at $100. $185. $200.
When overseas I
bought the three un-
circulated coins pic-
tured in this book
for a total of $140.
$-Size:
The WHAN. Craig
30, has sold over-
seas for $5.50, later
for $42. In the U.S.
a proof surface has
brought $171.
Smaller
Q. eagle HALF
WON. Craig 39. has
ranged from $17.50
(at a recent U. S.
auction) to $56 unc.
King Farouk paid
$295 1
Rare
Q. eagle 5 CHON nickel. Craig
38, has sold overseas for $7 and
later has sold at from $25 to
$42.50.
5 FUN (Craig 26) rare date of
Kuang Mu 3: I took my fine one
in trade at a consideration of about
V. Rare
1886 Tests, Craig 8 to 19; I
paid an average of $10 each for
mine and have seen pricings to
$25 asked.
There has been a trend for many coins to gravitate to 'rich America, high price heaven'.
Regarding these coins, this trend is based more on wishful thinking than on fact. One
of three things usually happens: (1) The legendary U.S. price is asked overseas and
the piece stays there result: the Far Easterner has sold nothing: (2) The Far Eastern
price is hoisted in knowledge that the visitor thinks he will make a killing in America.
But the not-so-exploitable buyer in America who doesn't know of or ignores the legend
can often sense or know when a price has ballooned, and to the offer of sale he replies,
"No, thank you" sometimes without the "thank you". The would-be huckster waits and
waits, then gives up and sells at a lossif he can find a buyer at allresult: the Far
Easterner has sold at a premium and the visitor at a loss or not at all; (3) Both the
Far Easterner and the foreigner ask a reasonable profit and the coin is readily saleable
result: everybody makes a sale. Agood safety device for a middleman is having an under-
standing with both seller and buyer before purchase.
* Chiefly made up to fit the preceding notes on outline and representative collections.