1 Mun Chin

The 1 Mun coins issued under the Joseon dynasty's Sangpyeong Tongbo series were produced at dozens of authorized furnaces across the country — military offices, royal bureaus, Buddhist temples — each assigned a distinct reverse inscription to identify the source mint. KM#157 represents one configuration within that sprawling, administratively complex system, which the government periodically expanded or contracted depending on whether currency oversupply was driving inflation. By the early 18th century, copper cash had penetrated rural markets deeply enough that the court debated whether further minting was doing more harm than good.