new Korean silver commem ROKs

tychojoe

Came out Oct 9 marking the anniversary of the creation of the Korean character set by King Sejong and scholars in 1446.

In the style of tongbo coins with the square hole in the middle, this was limited to a mintage of 50,000.

I didn't get lucky with the national lottery, so I had to hustle on Oct 9 to find any that didn't cost a fortune on the secondary market.

Dealers were asking anywhere from 55,000 to 150,000 won (around $50-$150) for a commem that retailed for 27,000 to the lucky lottery-chosen few. Got these for 40,000 won and considered it a bargain.

Obverse means something like, Happiness, prosperity, loyalty (I butchered the real translation I'm sure) and is a reproduction of an early token. Lettered edge shows all the characters, including those not in use today.

For a traditional tongbo design, it's a nice little coin!

farthing

Nice Commemorative!

spoon

Very cool coin! I really like that design.

sumnom

I don't normally like NCLT but this is a cool coin. The text reads, "filial piety, friendship (fidelity between friends), rites (propriety), and righteousness. That's reading top to bottom, right to left.

Are you living in Korea, Joe?

newsman

560 years is a strange anniversary to commemorate. Any special reason why they chose that number?

sumnom

The mint needed an excuse to mint some NCLT?

newsman

<< <i>The mint needed an excuse to mint some NCLT? >>



When has any mint ever needed an excuse? For most NCLT generators, the existence of collectors is excuse enough.

sumnom

The BOK has not been a big producer of NCLT. I wonder if that is going to change.

sumnom

I wonder what would happen if you tried to spend this at face value.

tychojoe

Sumnom, thanks for the translation! A dealer here in Jongno (I live in Seoul)
showed me the original token pictured in a catalog, but I didn't record the
information. I plan to go back and find the original token date and mintage.

<< I wonder what would happen if you tried to spend this at face value. >>

That would be cool. At 20,000 won, would it be a Korean double eagle? double dragon?
I'd like to carry around a $20 coin in my pocket for spending money!
It's 19 grams of 0.999 fine silver.

<560 years is a strange anniversary to commemorate.
Any special reason why they chose that number?>

Newsman, the coin was minted this year because a group of activists succeeded
in getting Hangeul Day re-elevated to the list of approved holidays. Maybe they
timed their campaign to coincide with a nice round actual anniversary year number?
I'm not aware that 560 has any special meaning to Korean numerologists or historians,
just that it's a better sound bite than 559 or 561, I guess!

Trivia -- Hangeul Day was given up 15 years ago as a national holiday in order to
promote economic growth by having fewer days off in the year.

Now, the activists said, it's no longer necessary to sacrifice Hangeul Day
for the economic good, let's get it back in people's minds.

They got it back, as a "national celebration day", but without the
government holiday day-off Koreans once enjoyed.

Acronyms - what's an NCLT? national commemorative legal tender? am I close?

farthing

Close - Non Circulating Legal Tender

Commemorative coins and currently minted precious medal coins are usually NCLT

sumnom

I didn't know that Hangeul Day had once been canned. Interesting. I can't imagine that would be politically feasible these days.

sumnom

I plan to go back and find the original token date and mintage.

What was the original token? Was it byeoljeon?

tychojoe

You'll have to teach me about byeoljeon charm coins.

All I know so far is that the obverse 4-character design is from
a coin minted in King Sejong's time, and I understood that it
was in a different category than tongbo.

I believe it's listed in the book pictured here,
green book cover, 2007 Korean Coins and Banknotes Catalogue,
which I don't have yet.