1 Mun Kum

The 1 Mun was the basic copper cash coin of Joseon Korea, cast rather than struck — a production method inherited from Chinese precedent and maintained long after striking became standard elsewhere in East Asia. KM#342 dates to the reign of Yeongjo, whose 52-year rule was among the longest in the dynasty's history and included persistent efforts to stabilize a currency system plagued by regional shortages and unofficial casting by provincial foundries.

Mint identification on these pieces is encoded in the reverse characters, which attribute production to specific government offices or military commands — a bureaucratic system that makes die attribution possible but catalog cross-referencing inconsistent across Western references.