Back when I was in grade school, I remember learning about the United States' first ironclad warships: the Union's Monitor and the Confederate's Merrimac. From what I remember learning, they were so dominating in battle that barely any of the wooden ships could make a significant enough damage to the ironclad's hull. As other nations built their own ironclads, bigger guns had to be mounted to counter the thicker and heavier iron hulls, making ironclads too cumbersome to wield the same number of the necessarily more powerful cannons. However, this thread is about the very first ironclad warship, which came into existence as far back as the early 1400s, and the most well known version of which in 1592 (!) in Korea. Surrounded and caught smack dab in the middle by two domineering enemies, China and Japan, Korea needed to forge an even more domineering warship than what the enemy could throw at them. Enter Korea's ironclad turtle ship, the Geobukseon: This beast of a ship sported cannons on each side, an ironclad hull that made enemy cannon fire practically useless, spikes on top to prevent enemies from boarding, was built as a battering ram, and craziest of all, the dragon's mouth at the ship's bow emitted sulfur smoke to conceal its movement and perhaps even disorient enemy crew with its foul odor. It's even thought that the dragon's mouth shot flames and cannons, too. What's even more impressive than the turtle ship itself is the man who designed the ship, Admiral Yi Sun-Sin. In short, he went 23-0 battles against the Japanese navy while being outnumbered at each encounter, at times by more than 10-to-1! He's been hailed by other accomplished admirals around the world and across time as the greatest admiral in history, with perhaps Admiral Togo's quote summing it up best: "It may be proper to compare me with Nelson, but not with Korea’s Yi Sun-sin, for he has no equal." You can catch a really neat 5-part historical review of Admiral Yi and the turtle ship here. Anyway, when I first learned of the world's first ironclad turtle ship, I was hooked because it joined together history, a warship, and turtles into a beastly combo. Combined further with numismatics and there was no turning back for me. As far as I'm aware, you'll find below all of the Korean ironclad turtle ship type designs in numismatics from around the world, which aren't all available and as comprehensively shown on catalogs from Krause, Colnect, Numista, etc. Please let me know if you think that I'm missing one or more from the list of 34 below! + 1998 Marshall Islands $25 + 1998 Marshall Islands $50, proof silver* + 2006 Solomon Islands $25, proof silver + 2003 N. Korea Won, proof Al + 2003 N. Korea Won, proof Cu-Ni + 2005 N. Korea Won, proof Al + 2005 N. Korea Won, proof Cu-Ni + 2003 N. Korea 5 Won, proof silver + 2015 N. Korea 5 Won, proof silver* + 2003 N. Korea 10 Won, proof Al + 2003 N. Korea 10 Won, proof silver* + 2005 N. Korea 10 Won, proof Al + 2005 N. Korea 10 Won, proof silver* + 2003 N. Korea 20 Won, proof Cu-Ni + 2005 N. Korea 20 Won, proof Cu-Ni + 2015 N. Korea 20 Won, proof gold + 1995 N. Korea 200 Won, proof gold + 1991 N. Korea 500 Won, proof silver + 2003 N. Korea 700 Won, proof gold + 2005 N. Korea 700 Won, proof gold + 2003 N. Korea 1500 Won, proof silver + 2005 N. Korea 1500 Won, proof silver* + 2013 N. Korea 3000 Won, proof silver* + 2005 N. Korea 30,000 Won, proof gold + 1959 S. Korea 50 Hwan, Cu-Zn-Ni + 1966-1970 S. Korea 5 Won, 88% Cu-Zn + 1970-1982 S. Korea 5 Won, 65% Cu-Zn > + 1982 S. Korea 5 Won, proof Cu-Zn* + 1983-Present S. Korea 5 Won, Cu-Zn > + 2000-2004 S. Korea 5 Won, reverse proof Cu-Zn* + 1970 S. Korea 100 Won, proof silver + 1970 S. Korea 5000 Won, proof 90% gold-Cu + 1986 S. Korea 50,000 Won, proof 92.5 gold-Cu + 1987 S. Korea 5 oz Medal, proof silver I can get much more specific with the listed coins above, but I think it'll just clutter up the list. Also, the North Korean coin data is so hard to come by that I won't be surprised to find a "new" 21st century one to add to the list. As an aside, I only collect the silver ones and the South Korean proof variants, but I think that I may also branch off into some of the gold ones. And, the asterisks are just there because I'm still looking to add them to my collection.
To make this numismatic list more complete, here are all banknotes w/ turtle ships: + 1958 South Korea 50 Hwan* + 1953 South Korea 10 Won + 1962-1973 South Korea 10 Won + 1953 South Korea 100 Won + 1966-1975 South Korea 500 Won + 1973-1993 South Korea 500 Won + 1953 South Korea 1000 Won*
Adding one new discovery that I made which is not listed in Krause, Colnect, Numista, etc. + 2007 Congo (Democratic Republic of) 25 Francs gold
