1 Mun Kae, Ch'on

The Ch'on series of cash coins was produced not by the central government mint but by a rotating system of authorized agencies — military offices, royal bureaus, and Buddhist temples among them — each assigned short minting periods to prevent any single institution from accumulating the seigniorage profit. The character "Kae" on this piece identifies the issuing office as the Kaesong government bureau. By the 1830s, coin quality across the series had degraded noticeably as copper alloy standards slipped and casting supervision loosened in provincial operations.