Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Mun Cho Son Tong Bo, Iron
| Issuer | Joseon (1392-1897) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1427 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 4.3 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cast round coin with a central square perforation, typical of East Asian cash coinage. Four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu) are arranged in cruciform fashion around the central square hole: 朝 (top), 鮮 (bottom), 通 (right), and 寶 (left), reading top-to-bottom and right-to-left as 朝鮮通寶 (Joseon Tongbo, meaning 'Joseon currency'). The characters are raised in low relief against a flat, unadorned field. An outer raised rim encircles the coin, with a corresponding inner rim framing the square perforation. The surface shows the dark, oxidized patina characteristic of iron or iron-alloy cast coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 朝 寶 通 鮮 (Translation: Joseon currency) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Cho Son Tong Bo was introduced under King Sejong as part of a broader push to establish coin-based commerce in a kingdom where cloth and grain stubbornly persisted as the dominant exchange media. Iron-alloy issues like this one were minted precisely because copper was chronically scarce on the peninsula — a problem that would continue to undermine Joseon coinage policy for generations. Popular resistance to metallic currency remained so entrenched that the government eventually abandoned the effort entirely; coins would not circulate with any real success in Korea until the late seventeenth century.