extant4cell

So, let's see what we have on the market. Information for reference: Gojong (Hangul: 고종; Hanja: 高宗; RR: Gojong; MR: Kojong), the Emperor Gwangmu (Hangul: 광무제; Hanja: 光武帝; RR: Gwangmuje; MR: Kwangmuje; 8 September 1852 – 21 January 1919), was the twenty-sixth king of the Joseon dynasty and the first Emperor of Korea. Ruled as a King of Joseon from 13 December 1863 to 13 October 1897 Became an Emperor of Korea on 13 October 1897 and ruled till 21 January 1907 Here is an example of King Gojong coin (1893): One thing worth mentioning is that during the ruling of King Kojong a mechanical press was introduced to coin minting. I had a look from 1894 onward. 5 Fun coins dominate the market over 1/4 Yang, but both (in bronze) are present in 1895, 1896, along with 1 Fun. In 1897 it looks like there was some interruption in coin production, with some rare 1/4 Yang listed in the catalog, but I never seen it. Which is hardly surprising, as in 1897 Korea went through unsettled times, with the King becoming the Emperor. In 1898 5 Fun (bronze) and 1/4 Yang (now in bronze and in nickel) both equally dominate the market, with 1 Yang also listed in catalog. It looks like in 1899 there was yet another interruption to coin minting and I could only find one coin, 5 Fun, that is very expensive at US $5,999.99 in VF25 condition available on the market. Here are their examples: Looking through the past sales reviled that both 5 Fun and 1/4 Yang coins were still produced in 1899, but in small quantities and that both are very rare now. Here is example of 1899 1/4 Yang: In 1900 and 1901 I could find only one coin for each year in the past sales (in copper-nickel and in nickel), both extremely rare: There is nothing on the market up to 1902, when 5 Fun returns with (look at that!) the new CHON denominations: The new Korean Chon coins resemble the Half Dollar, from 1899, that started it all, so much! It's using the same eagle. By 1902, as you know Russian presence in Korea is minimal, and I guess the King liked the design of the new coin presented to him in 1899, so it finally finds it's way to the market, along with a new denomination. Who presented the half dollar coin to the emperor in 1899 stays unknown, but I don't believe that it was Russians. I was even tempted to buy 5 or 1 Chon coins, to remember this little research, but the price between US$6,500 and US$16,000 repelled me from doing so for now. They are very rare too. With 5 Chon making past appearances a few time more than 1 Chon. Unfortunately, it was a short lived appearance. Reappeared "Russian influence" didn't find it's permanent place on Korean coins. In 1903 there is another interruption to the coin production and 1904 brings no return as well. Korean coins return to the market in 1905 with a new Half WON denomination and with a new 1, 5 and 20 CHON design under Japanese protectorate. Korea again finds new more Asian form of emblems placed on their coins (Chinese / Japanese influence?). Though it was a lot of FUN to see "Russian" eagle on Korean 1899 (pattern [I guess]) and 1902 regular strike coins. I have no patience at the moment to count the dots around the emblem, but to the naked eye 1902 5 Chon and 1905 Half Won look very similar to the 1899 coin. I guessed that the top 4 (or however many) hieroglyphs represent the year (of the rule), as they are the same on 1899 Half Dollar and on 1899 5 Fun. The left 2 hieroglyphs represent emperor or dynasty (as they change with the change of the ruler). And, finally, the 2 (4) hieroglyphs on the right must represent the denomination (1, 5, half, represented by 1 hieroglyph, while 1/4 represented by 3 characters). Interestingly enough that (see 1898/1999 picture) 5 Fun have the same hieroglyphs as the last 2 hieroglyphs in 1/4 Yang. So, can I assume that 5 Fun would equal 1 Yang at that time, or the last character represents a different denomination all together, like Chinese Cash coin, or something else, and the first hieroglyph(s) represent different from numeric fractions (let’s say a fraction of a measurement of grain)? Another interesting thing is that 1899 Half Dollar becomes Half Won in 1905! The 2 hieroglyphs on the right are absolutely the same! So, there we go. The 1999 Half Dollar with Korean Eagle in the end reincarnates into 1905 Half Won under Japanese protectorate, with Dollar becoming Won. The history of this little country is amazingly represented in its coins, and that's where it is interesting to be a numismatist. The above is just my thoughts, based on coin analysis. And finally, I absolutely agree with you, gxseries, as I already did above, that Korean Eagle was heavily influenced by Russian Empire CoA. It is particularly apparent if to place Russian eagle and Korean eagle from the 1902 1 or 5 Chon coins next to each other - a complete resemblance: And here are some cherries on the cake, some pattern or possibly "novodel" coins that I found after I thought I finished with this, so I am editing this post to add them along with some additional information: (coin is enlarged for better viewing experience, in reality it is a very small coin) Here is its description from 2011 September Long Beach Signature World & Ancient Coins Auction: "Russian Domination, Kuang Mu copper Pattern 10 Won Year 7 (1903), Unlisted in Krause (although NGC has listed this as KM-Pn34, that is incorrect, as Pn34 is Year 5, and this piece is Year 7) and the The Catalog of Korean Coins and Banknotes, Russian eagle/Value in wreath, MS64 Brown NGC. Listed in J&V as AC3. Well struck, with traces of mint red color around the devices. The only flaw worthy of mention is a dark spot in the right reverse field. This is the only example of this Pattern for a Russian influence 10 Won gold coin that we have ever offered, or seen for sale in a previous auction Increased Russian influence in Korea from 1896-1904 resulted in three types of regulars issue coins being struck in fairly large quantities. Few of these were ever released, and very few survive. This Russian threat was eliminated by the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, and Japan maintained a protectorate in Korea until after World War II. No gold coins were struck during the Russian domination, and this example and the following 20 Won Pattern, are the only two examples of coins struck during this period meant as possible gold coins." (I couldn't find 20 Won picture with Korean eagle) Similar description was given to this Half Won 1901 coin: "Piedmont Collection, Korea, Kuang Mu Russian domination silver 1/2 won year 5 (1901), Crowned Russian Imperial eagle, with orb and scepter, in circle/Value in wreath, SCKC-41.1, KM-1123, Choice BU with a few very light reverse hairlines. An extraordinary example of the rarest of the Russian influence types. Increased Russian influence in Korea, from 1896 to 1904 resulted in three types of coins (1 chon, 5 chon, and 1/2 won) being struck with a Russian eagle in place of the Japanese style dragon. After the Russian threat was eliminated by the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Japan established a direct protectorate over Korea. Japan maintained this direct control until the end of World War II." With one Half Won appearing in 2000, another one in 2006 and yet another one appearing in 2013. All coins were sold via Heritage Auction, what some may think is a little fishy, as now one may predict for another coin to appear at Heritage Auction closer to 2020. Where it comes to "Russian threat to Korea" in coin descriptions, I find it a little off the marks, and too prejudice towards Russia, though the myths should find their beginnings somewhere, and it is quite expected... What do you think? Images from eBay.com and www.acsearch.info were used above.

Gxseries, thank you for this interesting topic. Numismatics is a branch of historical discipline, after all, and it was exciting to look into all of this... Very interesting reading about the "country of the morning freshness", as it was poetically called by Chinese, before it's call for independence. There is very little information about the actual eagle. I could only find the "golden"' version of it, as you presented above, in Wikipedia, named as an imperial symbol and pictured next to imperial seal of Plum blossom, with no comments or references. Someone recently even made an effort to color it in in "Russian" colors, to make a point that it has Russian origin. In the article you provided above and in other sources, wherever I read in the last 24 hours, on the history of Russian and Korean relationships before the revolution, it clearly states that USA in alliance with GB on one hand, and Japan on another, were the largest stake holders in Korean politics after China withdrew its influence, and so the above mentioned influenced the country in their own ways, as their had little success in influencing the royal family that obviously wanted independence. The royals had little control over the country, due to absence of loyal military structure that alloyed Japanese and others to come and go, as they pleased, solving their problems with force. This resulted in kinds of upheavals in different parts of that nation, disturbing the peace, and eventually lead to assassination of the Korean Queen by Japanese in the royal palace. That actually turned the Korean royals towards closer ties with Russia, that Russia welcomed. Relying on the strength of Russian guards, Korean king turned to Russian diplomatic mission in seeking safe haven, and was provided with a roof over his head for about a year. Where he ruled the country from. He refused to return to the palace in which the queen (his first wife) was assassinated by Japanese ronin. In that time a new palace was build in close proximity to Russians. The Korean royals were invited to represent themselves at Nicholas II coronation, and after that were provided with some military and financial advisors / assistance. Since Russia now had a common boarder with Korea, it was important to Russia to trade with it and to assist Korea with peace keeping in order to grow its economy. That included establishment of Rosso-Korean bank and resulted in Russian business receiving some privileged concessions. That may explain the Russian influence on royal choice of their symbol. Although, to my liking the first two representations above are too simplistic, and it probably looked just like on the coin that you've shown. Though, documented reference would be the best source of confirmation, I think it is safe to assume that the eagle symbol was actually adopted as the royal choice that could represent the Korean king's assuming the title of Emperor, as Russia made a very deep impression on the king as a great empire that was worth of copying from. In 1898 Russian advisors were removed from Korea, in order to please the "opposition" of the royals and in order to have peace in internal affairs. But first, Russia and Japan signed an agreement to let Korea continue its independence, while both parties were to keep doing business with it. It also states in the article, that Japan and USA both had about twice as much of registered Korean immigrants on their territories, compare to Russia, and continued influencing different layers of the nation in order to overthrow the government and to take control over it. To ease the growing unrest, Russia withdrew the advisors with Korean royals permeation, as stated above, in 1898. As I wrote before, Russia had plans to concentrate more on Manchuria, and after withdrawal of its advisors provided little help to Korea, even when requested, though it kept diplomatic and business presence. It had no intention in ruining relationships with Japan or America. In light of the above, it is more likely to me, that this coin (given it is an authentic coin): has nothing to do with Russia at all, but with America trying to influence Korea economically, and possibly, providing assistance in upgrading Korean mints (perhaps providing them with new presses?). The royal symbol (ironically Russian in origin) was used simply to represent the royal imperial power, aiming at pleasing Korean Emperor, as it was his choice of emblem. I also have HUGE doubts, as I mentioned before, that be it a Russian coin in origin, that DOLLAR system and English language would not be used by Russian mint designers. They would probably use the local currency system. Though, it was only customary issue the coins for Russian protectorate territories in double system, local and used in a Greater Russian empire, like in Poland and Finland, for example. I have even greater doubts that Russian emperor would risk being accused of having invasion plans, just by minting a coin like that... Once Korea became independent it turned from using Japanese influenced Korean YANG system and replaced it with own Korean FUN system. I am no specialist in Korean coins at all, so I turned to the market, to see what is available in that period. Let's see what I found (still in making), in the next post.

Thank you for additional information! I am still a little puzzled in which way Half Dollar coin may be of Russian influence. Would it be Half Rouble or a Double Headed Eagle, it would be self-explanatory, but Half Dollar would hardly call for Russian influence, more like American influence, or am I missing something? I already posted the topic, while I was at lunch. I am unable to access that site in Russian (due to sanctions?! LOL), but can see it when translated to English via google. Not a perfect translation by google, as always, but good enough, and English is just what we need: https://translate.google.com/translate?act=url&depth=2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&langpair=ru|en&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&u=http://www.staraya-moneta.ru/forum/forum84/topic193140/

No worries, I will do that. One question. Why do you think that a Half Dollar coin is more likely to be produced by St.Petersburg mint and not Korean mint, run by Japanese? And not by another country that this currency would be more suitable for.

I couldn't find any correlation between deportation of Russian military instructors and financial advisor K.Alekseev, in spring of1898, from Korea, and minting of these coins. After that Russia concentrated more on Manchuria and China. There was a small religious mission made up by 3 people, including father Nikolay (also Alekseev) later in 1899, that received little to no financial support from Russia. But anything is possible, and someone has to really dig for it in the archives in Russia.

I think you need to open that case, in order to learn the mint, am I right?

I am grateful to Mr. Arefiev for all of the materials that he presented already. I may have to rely on other kind souls who may be happy to share Russian plates with Elizabeth copper and with 1796 copper plates, from the above catalog.

Thank you again, IgorS. I haven't got this one.

One is an original coin, according to catalog's description, made as an overstrike on an old denga, but surely, it would be on top of polushka... and another one described as a novodel. Thank you IgorS, I forgot to look in this cataloge! Anyone can suggest any others?

Please suggest re: the above. The earlier the better. I've seen GM, of cause, and 1923 Ilyin, and 1932 Hess sale. Aware of 1910 Ilyin / Tolstoy. Are you aware of any other, able to share the pictures and catalog descriptions? I am interested in all sorts of cipher coins, including novodels and pattern coins. Thank you in advance!

This stand is ready to swap 20 5 kopecks to 1 rouble - any time!

This one is on sale on Russian auction site. One of the nice ones.

Hard to identify in this condition, but I believe it is the one from the Moscow mint, just like the one below. The off center isn't very uncommon, just that they rarely get sold for much (unless in reasonable condition) and because of that they see little market...

It was a literary figure of speech that suited that topic well, though the coin is as close to the origin of 5 kopecks as it can get, in my opinion, which kind of makes it an ideal for the rest of the series...

It is one of the earliest pyataks. Same dies as a model ones for EM and MM, and to a degree for SM. It is like Adam and Eve to humanity in the coin world...

Thank you for your question, Kopeikin. It is explained well in my catalog (in Russian), and I am in process of moving house at the moment, but let's see what I can do. This coin is a missing link in unscrambling the puzzle of early S.M. / E.M. coins of 1758 with Dassier eagle. I found only 2 or 3 Petersburg mint (S.P.M.) 1763 coins with such narrow "shaved down" scroll ends, and I was lucky enough to secure one of them for my collection. The reason for SPM coins with this kind of scroll to be a rare find is that not a lot of their forms / dies have survived by the end of 1758, with majority being replaced by the later design: Sigi's handy site (http://www.sigistenz.com/) provides a good opportunity to explore different coin types. We spent some time discussing these coins in private. I'll use some of his images to demonstrate the point. As it states correctly above, it is a Sestroretsk coin, which dies were made by Petersburg mint, as it provided instruments to SM, and thus SPM kept the forms and master dies, that were later use (partly) to make coins in 1763. Of cause there were a lot of later design eagles and scrolls used by SPM and SM in 1763. And some of them came from 1758 or were based on them. Here is an example of a later 1758 SM scroll: What groups them together is the shape of year numbers! The only instrument that the Petersburg mint did not pass to Moscow (MM) or to Ekaterinburg (EM). And these numbers are identical in shape for both Sestroretsk produced coins and for the "ideal" coin below: What groups the "ideal" pyatak with EM and and early MM coins is the shape of its scroll (see the ends of the scroll)! (had to use this image of the early MM coin from www.m-dv.ru) and that one is my MM, so you can see early MM scroll better: There are simply no other coins with SM/SPM shape numbers and EM / MM scroll, apart from the ex-Tolstoy coin and my "ideal" pyatak. My only explanation to that is in the first post.

"Ideal" Pyatak Alas, Numismatics isn't always a precise science, and though, documents are great when they are available and correct, one must also theorize and base the assumptions on analysis. Below, is my humble opinion on what the "ideal" 5 kopecks in series of Elizaveth (Elisavita Petrovna) coins is. Trial 1757 coins (5 k.) with different coat of arms (Petersburg, Moscow and Siberia) - beautiful myth and nothing more. Analysis of those coins lets us identify coins of a later times, particularly if you would pay attention to their scrolls. The model five kopecks 1757, with silver Dassier eagle, if such has ever existed, didn't survive to our times. That's why, we have no choice, but to compare ideal pyatak's Dassier eagle to the one on 1757 rouble: [photo of Lenox, Hermitage] Nonetheless, there are other two coins with nominal 5 kopecks 1758, which we may consider as "ideal" examples that laid the basis to the whole series of 5 kopecks 1758 and forth-forward. One of them is from the Tolstoy collection and now sits in the Hermitage. It can be seen in GM catalogs: If you search the numismatic sites you may even find a better quality modern picture of this coin made by Altair. This coin, in theory, is from the 1758 group of coins from a model strike by Petersburg mint. All elements on the coin are identical to the elements on early Sestroretsk mint coins (including the shape of the year numbers), apart from the "Пять * Копеек" scroll. Such scrolls (see their ends) are typical only to the early Moscow and to Ekaterinburg mint pyataks. EM and MM received model coins and their impressions, and they were stroke with the same dies and at the same time with the above coin. Uniqueness of this coin is exactly in that, as if we speak about SPM trial strike coins, from which the model coins for MM and EM were chosen from, and if we speak of the pyataks stroke by SPM (where the regular strike of five kopecks did not exist), you can not find a better candidate than this coin, and such mind fantasy sits pretty well with me, bringing no doubts to the surface whatsoever. The sister coin to the Hermitage ex-Tolstoy coin sits in my collection. This coin I was my lucky win at NY Markov auction: [perhaps sold by Hermitage as a double at the start of the last century] Apart from these two "ideal" pyataks, others are not known to me. All the other pyataks are their reflections, in their majority far from ideal, what still doesn't stop us from a pleasure of studying and collecting them. This coin is featured in my catalog of Elizabeth 1757-1762 (2, 5 kopecks) and Peter III 1762 (4, 10 kopecks). My original post was published in the topic "Ideal Collection" on Staraya Moneta: http://www.staraya-moneta.ru/forum/messages/forum14/topic22964/message1966201/#message1966201

Gold coins from earlier Hermitage sources (mainly). Only the top coin "korabelnik" (boat-related) is Russian, the bottom is it's English prototype. \

A little bit off topic on Russian coins, but also from Hermitage - Byzantine coins:

True... I wonder what it is for in that case... Tokens for a Russian "banya" (sauna), or a brothel? )))

The following group of coins are all in platinum: