100 Won South Korea - info on varieties

N#1037 

Hi, does anyone have any information on the 1975 “die varieties”? Many thanks, J 

A member here wrote a book on South Korean coins:

     https://en.numista.com/forum/topic166121.html#p1277480

He may be able to help, but his profile does not show recent activity on Numista.

Awesome thank you, Ill tag him in and hope for the best :)

@DPerdue

jbridger311

N#1037 

 

Hi, does anyone have any information on the 1975 “die varieties”? Many thanks, J 

Hi.  Yes, I am aware of the “100-Won (KM# 9) 1975 die varieties” allegation made in the Standard Catalog of World Coins.

That allegation is not substantiated by any information in the possession of the current owner of the catalog (NumisMaster.com) from what I understand.  I provided the last update to NumisMaster (the old Krause Catalog) and its KOREA, SOUTH listings.  I had to clean up a lot of errors in the South Korea listing (e.g. clarify the NON-existence of KM# 33.2a “aluminum-bronze” 10-Won), I had to add commemorative coins that were never entered, and change erroneous titles of coins (e.g. the “1st Anniversary of the 5th Republic” commemoratives in 1981 are actually the “Inauguration of the 5th Republic”).  The “100-Won 1975 die varieties” is also now out of the catalog, I believe.  That allegation of varieties was made decades ago, printed in the catalog back then, and it was then mimetically repeated in each yearly issue over and over without so much as ANYONE, in Korea, or outside of Korea, EVER being able to show an example of ANY KIND of variety from that denomination and date.  Nobody in the Korean collector/dealer community has ever discussed such varieties or shown evidence of such a thing.  The person who made the allegation of these supposed varieties (probably somebody in the USA) is probably long gone and the evidence (IF they ever had evidence in the first place!) is also long gone.

Claims of “die varieties” are fine, I just think that unless you SEE, with your own eyes, examples or photographic evidence of the variety, you shouldn't believe it.  There is someone here (Alexandr Prokofyev, at the KM# 35 100-Won page) who submitted photographic evidence of the die varieties for the 100-Won that he is claiming.  His claims are believable, and one can follow those claims if they want to do so.  Personally, I am not into these unbelievably minuscule(!) hubbing changes, especially if nobody in the Korean collector community, where the majority of the collectors of these coins exist, even recognizes them.

My two cents.  For what they're worth.

-Mark Lovmo

Thank you, your opinion is very much valued, I shall not worry about searching for any “varieties” in mine 😅

Perhaps we can submit a change to the Numista catalogue? It also records the same for 1976 but again no evidence :) 

Many thanks, 

J 

jbridger311

Thank you, your opinion is very much valued, I shall not worry about searching for any “varieties” in mine 😅

 

Perhaps we can submit a change to the Numista catalogue? It also records the same for 1976 but again no evidence :) 

 

Many thanks, 

 

J 

 

 

Well, you can still search for varieties with South Korean 100-Won coins (KM# 9).  You just have to know what they are.  They are just not listed with the Standard Catalog of World coins nor Numista.  

There is a 1973 off-center reverse strike, a 1977 doubled die obverse, and a 1982 doubled die reverse.  All are quite rare as far as we know and have only been found in Korea, so far.

As for Numista, they seem to follow a vote of their own judges' opinions, which is fine (it IS their site), but not helpful to collectors who are looking for  nonexistent varieties that are claimed with Krause.  

If I ran Numista, I wouldn't allow a variety claim without BOTH photographic evidence AND the judges' votes.

Ive made a request and put a link to this, like you say its up to the judges 😅

jbridger311

Ive made a request and put a link to this, like you say its up to the judges 😅

AND I have photographic evidence for each of those real varieties/errors of the South Korea KM# 9 100-Won that I mentioned.  It's probably just me, but I consider these examples below to be significant enough for my notice.  Mr. Prokofyev's discoveries (KM# 35 100-Won) are too minor for my taste, although he should be lauded for having a very sharp eye, as well as discovering a whole new group of varieties for people to seek out and collect, if they wish. None of Prokofyev's varieties nor the ones below deserve their own KM catalog numbers, IMO.  I never liked the Krause-Mishler catalog's propensity to give catalog numbers (made with decimals and lower-case letters) to coins with minor design variations.  

Take a gander at these:

1977 DDO:     Not sure how many of these exist.

1973 Off-Center Strike:  A Seoul newspaper reported the discovery of several of these at the time of their issue.

1982 DDR:      Not sure how many of these exist.

Awesome coins! I have a very modest collection of South Korean coins but find them very interesting nonetheless. 

It looks like the request was approved and year lines corrected. 

Perhaps the referee @WonYoungJun  would consider these varieties worthy of adding to the Numista catalogue? I don't mind putting in another request if that makes things easier. 

Thank you both again for your time and assistance :) 

jbridger311

Awesome coins! I have a very modest collection of South Korean coins but find them very interesting nonetheless. 

 

It looks like the request was approved and year lines corrected. 

 

Perhaps the referee @WonYoungJun  would consider these varieties worthy of adding to the Numista catalogue? I don't mind putting in another request if that makes things easier. 

 

Thank you both again for your time and assistance :) 

Think nothing of it.  As you can tell, I'm never at a loss for words when it comes to conversing about S. Korean coins… Happy to be of assistance.  

If collectors here at Numista are interested in varieties, then yes, perhaps these images should be added.  I have the links to the locations of these images on the internet.  The images are all courtesy of Go Il-gon (고일곤), who gave me permission to use these images in my publications.

1977 DDO: https://blog.naver.com/duck1044/70019982052?trackingCode=blog_bloghome_searchlist

1973 Off-Center:  https://blog.naver.com/duck1044/221229818682?trackingCode=blog_bloghome_searchlist

1982 DDR: https://blog.naver.com/duck1044/70115278410?trackingCode=blog_bloghome_searchlist

There is another rather common variety with KM# 9, albeit a minor one:  A “Weak 7” or “Soft 7” of the 1974 strike.  The ‘7’ is the numeral in the date ‘1974’ on the reverse and it appears weakly struck in some examples.  The ‘7’ seems to oppose an area of high relief on the obverse (Admiral Yi's cheek?).  I have images of that one somewhere here, too.  If you have a random handful of 1974 100-Won coins, one can probably find what I'm talking about oneself, it's that common of a variety.

Oh, and here is a detail image of that 1982 DDR:

Hello!

I think mentioning them in the Comments section would still be helpful for users looking for additional information.

I don’t agree with standard minting error being termed as varieties, a variety is a new die or a damaged die being used (with a variety) different hair line, text differences, etc - not errors.

A damaged die (through use) is also not a variety, at least not listed in Numista (for the most part).

King

I don’t agree with standard minting error being termed as varieties, a variety is a new die or a damaged die being used (with a variety) different hair line, text differences, etc - not errors.

However Numista wants to define “error” or “variety” is up to the forum judges or whatever definitions the judges want to follow.
 

Just wondering: Isn't the 1955 Lincoln Cent DDO considered an “error” and a major “variety” at the same time?

Ive got one coin from 1977 but the obverse is in the exact opposite orientation as the reverse. Is this an error, or is it normal? 

Jag4

Ive got one coin from 1977 but the obverse is in the exact opposite orientation as the reverse. Is this an error, or is it normal? 

So the orientation is in “coin alignment” (the reverse is ‘upside down’ from the obverse)?  If so, that's normal.  South Korea strikes its circulation coins like USA coinage:  Business strikes in coin turn and commemoratives in medallic alignment.