Korea cash help

ColinCMR

Can anybody give me info on these coins, (excuse my caligraphy, I tried ):




Here's some bonus clues:
1mun
24mm diameter
Brass(?)
Mint: Kaesong Township Military Office (written on original 2x2)
similar to schjoth 181

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5mun
31mm
bronze

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5mun
29mm
bronze
Mint I (is written on the original 2x2)

Thanks for any help

sumnom

Nice art work!

The first one is one mun, 1816, minted by the Kaesong Military Office. Mandel #34.14.10

The second is five mun, 1883, minted by the Seoul Military Office. Mandel# 30.31.18

The third is five mun, 1883, Minted by Central Mint. Mandel# 21.1B.10

Your five mun coins come in many varieties but I will need to see scans of the coins to tell which varieties you have. If you provide images, even if they are not so clear, I might be able to give you a much more detailed attribution.

sumnom

Colin, you might be interested in these threads:

five mun thread

another five mun thread

ColinCMR

Thanks for the response Sumnom!

I will scan the coins soon, I ended up trying to draw them because I thought scans would be too dark.

So far thanks to you, my old Krause and some internet searching I've learned a bunch about Korean coins.
Here's a summary and some questions:

Sang P'yong T'ong Bo means something about stabilizing money or the economy

The coins have a mint character, a furnace# and sometimes a series #

I managed to get all of the furnace #'s correct (I gather that the last number in Mandel's # is the furnace#) and using my Krause I managed to get the mints too.

For the T'ong mintmark, how do you differentiate between T'ongyong naval base and the MO in Seoul? Same with the 2 Kaesong mints.


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I think I may add Mandel's book to my list of numismatic literature

sumnom

Colin,

The Mandel is the best source I have seen in English for Korean cast coins. I highly recommend it. Of course, it is not without its weaknesses but you won't find anything better in English. The main problem I have with it is that it doesn't list very many varieties. Korean catalogues go into quite a lot more detail, sometimes too much detail!

The five mun coins were not produced at the Tongyong naval base so, by process of emlimination, we know this tong is for the Seoul MO. All other "tong" coin are from the naval base.

There are two Kaesong mints? My references only have one.

sumnom

T'ongbo means currency. Sangp'yong is often translated as "ever normal." This term was more commonly used in association with the ever-normal granaries in China and Korea (and elsewhere) that were run by the state and used to regulate grain markets. When prices went down the granaries purchased grain and when the prices went up they released reserves onto the grain markets. The term "sangp'yong t'ongbo" is supposed to lead us to believe that the value of the coin is stable but in practice the value of Koean cast coins was highly unstable. They were in only limited and irregular circulation until the end of the seventeenth century.

ColinCMR

Maybe I am mistaken about the Kaesong mints, I just saw reference to Kaesong Kwalliyong and the Kaesong Township MO.

Thanks for your help though! I've been into Chinese cash for awhile, and this is my first attempts at learning about Korean cash.

ColinCMR

On the side with the mint and furnace # on the 5mun coin, what does the character on the right say and mean, is it something to do with value, then wu (5)?

sumnom

I just saw reference to Kaesong Kwalliyong and the Kaesong Township MO.

Ah, they are the same thing.

I have been collecting Korean cash coins for about five years, concentrating on the five mun denomination and other nineteenth century issues.

What kind of Chinese coins have you been collecting?

Do you read Chinese?

If you have other questions about Korean coinage, please ask. It is not everyday that such a question comes up around here. I can probably tell you more than you want to know if I'm not careful

sumnom

The character on the right is "tang, " meaning "equal to."

ColinCMR

I can only read the numbers, and I can recognize some other common characters like yuan. I'd really like to learn a new language and Mandarin is in the top 3 I've come down to (I need a new project for when summer starts).

I have a handful of Northern Sung coins and I've picked up a copy of Schjoth's book and I'm still watching for Fisher's Ding. I just found a nice wu-shu coin too, I've always wanted one. I actually collect all types of coins and most other collectibles too for that matter.

These Korean coins seem really interesting, I like the complexity of various military and provincial mints as well as furnace numbering. I doubt I could get too detailed about calligraphy varieties, but I'd still find time to try.

If you'd like you can run off a synopsis on some info you'd like to share about the 5 mun coins. How big is your Korean collection? Are the coins pictured in the 2 threads you showed me yours?

ColinCMR

Here are some scans, if you'd like me to take better scans of individual characters let me know.







and a color enhanced picture of the former

sumnom

I think I might do that, Colin. I won't be able to for the next day or two but maybe over the weekend when things calm down a little, I will post something about the five mun coin.

satootoko

I can't find the link to the source where I got my copy of Fisher's Ding a couple of years ago, but I'll keep looking.

I've seen it on EBay a couple of times, but there don't seem to be any listed right now.

ColinCMR

Thanks Satootoko

Do you find Fisher's Ding useful?

satootoko

<< <i>Do you find Fisher's Ding useful? >>

If truth be told, it's useful, but just not as useful as I hoped it would be. I'm almost completely illiterate in Chinese characters, and generally when I do recognize something, it's the Japanese Kanji reading.

IDing a cash coin generally requires that I open the book at the front, and turn pages until I find what I'm looking for, which can be a very laborious process, and sometimes an unsuccessful one.