gxseries Posted September 12, 2009 Report Share Posted September 12, 2009 This has been a relatively difficult area to collect and is one of the most significant years struck by the Japanese mint in Osaka. Most coins that I'm going to show are either one or two year type and are struck in millions which make them seem easy to find. In reality, it took me a while hunting them. 1905 is the first year where 1 chon, 5 chon (nickel-copper), 20 chon and half won were introduced. 1906 follows by introducing half chon, 10 chon, 10 won (gold) and 20 won (gold) (Now Korean gold coins are a complete different story - it's nearly impossible to find them) 1907 comes to a stage where coin sizes were reduced (other than the nickel-copper) or the metal content were reduced. This is to reflect the budget deficit incurred during the Russo-Japan war back in 1904-1905. What this means is that 1906 would be the last year where Korean coins would be struck on large planchet and some are just one year type. Nevertheless, I guess everyone wants pictures: Enjoy! 1/2 chon (one year type) 1 chon (two year type) 10 chon (one year type) 20 chon (two year type) 1/2 won (two year type) Yes I know the 1/2 won is sadly damaged. Something to wonder - if the Japanese Mint struck all denominations for Korea, why isn't there any 1 won silver coin? Pretty odd considering there were gold won coins... I am just missing the 1905 20 chon to make the 1905 set complete. I wouldn't be looking for the gold coins any time soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 Congrats! I've yet to see in person any pre-WWII Korean coins, cash coins aside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satootoko Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 Yes I know the 1/2 won is sadly damaged.But at least you have one, which is, sadly, more than I can say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 It is interesting that they appear to be all in the Japanese language and a tiny bit of English, but curiously no Korean. These have to be a pain to find, because I believe they were all called in after 1910 when Japan formally annexed Korea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted September 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 Scottishmoney, the Korean bit is right after the English text. I'm not too sure what happened to the majority of these coins after Japan formally annexed Korea. There aren't too much reference to Korean coinage and Korea wouldn't see any coinage until 1959 - almost 50 years down the road. As far as I can see, I wouldn't be too surprised that a fair amount was sent back to Japan for meltdown or sent overseas. For instance, a fair amount of 5 fun coins were exported to China to be overstruck as 10 cash. Considering the relationship between Korea and Japan until the last 20 years or so, Koreans weren't too keen to have anything that's Japanese related so I would presume this is one of those things that they would have got rid. I've been creating a digital album of the coins which will be ready soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 It appears as though the only Korean text is just the denomination? That is all that appears to me to not be Japanese characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 Congrat on a successful quest. Enjoy them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Not quite, Scottishmoney. Korean is an interesting language as it uses a mix of Hanja and Hangul script. What appears to be characters made up of lines and circles is hangul and hanja is the set of characters that resembles Chinese characters. I'm not a linguist but there are hints of clues that the Japanese occupation may have indirectly caused hanja to be near extinct. Here's a wikipedia link about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Congrat on a successful quest. Enjoy them. Thanks Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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