1 Mun Hun

Cast rather than struck, this piece belongs to the chaotic final decades of Joseon's state mint network, when private and semi-official furnaces were producing cash coins alongside authorized facilities with little consistent oversight. The 1 Mun denomination had been the backbone of Korean bronze coinage since the late seventeenth century, but chronic debasement and irregular casting quality meant public confidence in these coins was persistently fragile.

KM#452 is distinguished by its mint signature, which attributes it to a specific furnace within the government casting system — a detail that matters considerably for attribution, as dozens of facilities were operating concurrently by the 1850s.