Korea 5 Mun 1883 Kanghwa Military Command

sumnom

It's a little banged up but I rather like it.

Regular Choson government troops revolted in 1882 after months of not receiving their rations. The Qing government sent troops, put down the revolt, and began a 12-year period of dominance in Choson affairs. Yuan Shikai, who was later to become the Qing imperial resident in Korea, president of the Republic of China, and failed emperor, was charged with training Choson soldiers. One of the new units he established was based on Kangwha Island. These coins were minted to finance the new Kangwha unit. Pro-Japanese elements of the Choson court preferred obtaining a loan from Japan for modernization projects but pro-Qing elements preferred minting the debased 5-mun coin. Attempts to secure a Japanese loan failed and minting proceeded at this and many other mints from 1883 until sometime into the early 1890's with hyperinflation as a result. The five-mun coin circulated at one mun almost as soon as it was released into circulation.

gxseries

Most certainly interesting. You know, I would so love to collect such coins but found it quite difficult to identify.

shirohniichan

Thanks for the background info. To think that coin collecting is more than a matter of judging between DCAMs and UDCAMs!

sumnom

I think it would be difficult to collect cash coins without being able to read Chinese. What I do find difficult in collecting Korean cash coins is the varieties in calligraphy. With the 5-mun coins from the Kanghwa mint, the variations are easy to spot but in some of the other series, the differences are so fine as to be quite difficult to see, at least for me. The 100-mun coins seem to have numerous varieties listed in the catalogues but I really can't tell the difference. Some dealers I have spoken to in Seoul admit they can only differentiate a fraction of the varieties.

Shiroh, one learns something new everyday, doesn't one?