High Cost Of Coins In South Korea

South Korean coin prices have appreciated drastically in the last 5 years. Early coins from 1959 to 1970 are often not well preserved and therefore command some absurd prices. The 1966 to 1970 5 and 10 won coins in particular are prone to corrosion due to the alloy.

Lefmafc can tell you more about it

They have always been expensive. The gold and nickel coins in particular are the most expensive. Perhaps even an arm and leg isn't enough to buy the entire set!

A lot of earlier Korean coins were struck at a time where there were a lot of mistrust with the government issued coins. You must remember that this is a time when Korea was the meat in the sandwich between China, Japan and even the Russians are involved. The first machine struck coins for the Korean Empire were planned by German engineer but with Japanese equipment and technicians from Osaka Mint.

Coin production was meant to be started in late 1892 but was only issued in 1894. When the coins were first issued, it was compounded by China's disagreement on the use of "Great Korea" and thus the mint was forced to issue some coins without the character "Great". When China lost the war to Japan, I guess the mint had better things to do and didn't care less. Thus you have a lot of varieties with the coins issued from 1892 to 1902.

When Korea became a Japanese protectorate, coins were issued in Osaka mint from 1905. Older coins were phased out and it was well known that many 5 fun coins were sold as scrap metal and exported to China. Some 5 fun coins were used as overstrikes in China. To compound the trust issue, nickel prices have tanked and the public think they are getting ripped off. This is because with the public's experience with the older cast copper coins. Good quality copper coins were smelted down and recast as cheaper bronze alloy coins, devaluing the metal content. Thus many nickel copper coins from 1899 (including 1897) are extremely rare. Nickel copper coins were the first one to be demonetized due to the huge mistrust - some millions of them were recalled from circulation.

When Korea became a Japanese colony in 1910, there was no longer a need to issue special coins and instead Japanese coins and banknotes were used instead. Of course that meant that a lot of Korean coins were melted down along the years. With lots of older Koreans not liking the Japanese - it's no wonder why these coins have always been hard to find. Have been underrated but the prices have definitely appreciated drastically in the last 10 years.

This is easy to answer. The intrinsic value of these (and all) coins is driven by rarity and quality. There are a number of 1890~1900s coins that are nearly unobtainable. A good majority of them were minted in Japan, then taken by Japan during occupation and then melted, and then taken/melted by the US after WW2. So the number of surviving extreme rarities are very, very low.

Even for less rare, finding very high MS specimens is very hard and thus, make them worth more money.

I don't understand these comments.

I've looked at https://www.NGCcoin.com/price-guide/world/, MA Shops and ebay and most of the post 1960 coins are priced at a few dollars or cheaper.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't seem to understand Korean coins. 1970 is the very first year of the 100 Won coin, ever. So yes, it is intrinsically rare, but especially rare in MS. You should have been stocking up on this and other rare Korean coins for a long time. Right now is a great time to sell with the prices. The 1966 1W is also a another expensive one, but the 1967 1W isn't worth much.




The "prices" on that NGC values page are not updated and do not consider the markets where the coins are from. We are also talking about MS state coins, not circulated stuff; which is worth nothing most of the time.

These coins now have a new standard book that gives the complete history of these South Korean coins that are now rising in value in markets inside and outside Korea.