We have encountered several unique coins and patterns weaving through Whitman Publishing’s 100 Greatest Modern World Coins. Authors Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker have taken the reigns, giving us valuable insight into the world of coins from all over the globe. This next unique coin is one that was struck for one year under a period of dominance from an outside country before a war would end their influence.
#47 – Korea 1902 Chon, Russian Denomination
The Gwangmu Reform (1897-1907) was an attempt at modernizing Korean society. Named after the 26th king of the Joseon dynasty, Gojong, who then became the first emperor of the very short-lived Korean Empire (1897-1910), established political reforms to create greater social equality. In addition, military reforms recreated fighting forces along Western lines that were trained by Russian advisors and infrastructure and industrial modernization and educational reforms were organized.
While modernization was intended, it did not come until decades later unfortunately. Despite all the reforms, Korea was still largely under the control of imperial ambitions of its neighboring countries. Two to be exactly: Japan and Russia. They vied for influence over the empire before and during the reforms. However, after Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904-1905, Korea lost its independence to Japan. Guangmu was forced to abdicate and his son, Sunjong, became emperor.
Before the loss to Japan, a 1902 chon was struck as a one-year type by the Russo-Korean Bank in addition to a 5-chon and half-chon denomination. The obverse featured a Russian imperial eagle in the center with taegeuk (traditional symbol of Korea) in lieu of coats of arms and military decorations. Clockwise from the top, the symbols, with links to Taoism and trigrams, featured are water, thunder, mountain, valley, fire, earth, wind, and heaven. The reverse depicts the character for chon. It is the same symbol that is used for the Japanese denomination sen. The plum flower of the imperial seal is also featured at the top of the design.
Mintage of the 1902 Chon, Russian denominations is over three million. This sounds like a lot, but the mintage contradicts the extreme collecting difficulty and rarity of the coin.