On my recent trip to South Korea, I went up to the JSA and DMZ. While there I stopped by the gift shop on Camp Boniface. They had some new DPRK notes as well as a coin set. They didn't have them last time I was up there so I picked both up. Thought I would share with you all 1 Chon 5 Chon 10 Chon 50 Chon 1 Won
They released 3 types of coins: 1. Coins with two stars - for tourists from capitalist states. 2. Coins with one star - for tourists from socialist states. 3. Coins without stars - for citizens of North Korea. This is the coin with one star (for socialist visitors).
Yeah. The "star" system. "Socialist" countries like the DPRK and China are funny like that. Separate money for different people... whatever. Boring to me. I remember purchasing some 1978-series DPRK notes at Seoul Tower in 1995. A few days later, I read in the newspaper that a taxi driver reported to the police that one of his customers paid him with a DPRK 10 Won note(!). The fact that it made it in the newspapers was so funny to me, since I (and probably 20 other people that same day) had just bought an entire set of those notes at a souvenir stand at a popular city attraction.
Does Cuba still have a 2-tier system? Also, how much does role does currency really play in day-to-day transactions in North Korea?
Well, they gotta buy stuff there, right? I'm not up on how foodstuffs are allocated in the DPRK, but I think it's with cash(?) I've heard that US Dollars and Euros are commonly used in black market situations. I really am not sure how much the coins are used there, which is what I am more interested in. I know they recently had a currency reform, which caused a major uproar (kind of rare in the DPRK, but it happened), because it was one of those where they revalued the currency downward at a 10 to 1 rate.
Hey all, just thought I'd share mine as well! I did a video on my North Korean banknotes that I got at the DMZ.
North Korean coins are rather intriguing. A lot of coins that are sold are unusually in UNC condition. So far I find it uncommon to find such coins in worn condition despite its economy. It is not unreasonable to guess that while coins are dated 1959 or other years - the years must have been fixed on dies to save on cost. There are other series supposedly minted in 2002, 2005 and 2008. I don't keep on top of these coins - I suspect the coins dated 2005 were actually struck much later. Around 2009 - 2010, a bunch of so called 'pattern' coins appeared in the market which I guess were marketed towards collectors. They were common at the time until supply slowly dried up.
A few things I've picked up on the North Korean coins. As someone mentioned in this post (or in another one) - similar coins were minted for different users. Users that belong in North Korea, users from socialist (communist? totalitarian?) countries, and users from capitalist (totalitarian? military? democratic? social democratic?) countries. One star is a communist visitor - and I forget the rest. Second, look out for these words - 견 본 - which means sample. My son's girlfriend is Korean. Her dad went to a flea market or gift shop in Seoul and found a number of North Korean coins, which he graciously obtained for me. Some of them had the word "sample" on them. Even though samples, I really like and appreciate them. Third (and finally) - 주 체 - as in "주 체 97" - represents the years since the birth of the 'great leader'. I may not be entirely accurate but it is 'joo che' or 'ju che'.
The juche dating system counts the years since the birth of Kim Il-sung, the founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). I don't believe that there is any electronic payment system in the North, at least not one linked with the outside world. They are very isolated. As far as I understand cash is king there. KPW (Korean People's Won) is the official currency, with US$, Euro, and Chinese Yuan all circulating there. US$1 is about 2300-2500 KPW on the black market depending on where in the country you are. I dont imagine the small denomination notes see much use.
