10 000 Won Volleyball

Issued to commemorate the 1988 Seoul Olympics — the first Games hosted by South Korea — this coin was part of a sprawling multi-piece program that the Bank of Korea released across several years leading up to the event. Seoul's selection in 1981 had been a political flashpoint, with the IOC vote occurring against the backdrop of the Cold War and significant lobbying against awarding the Games to a country still technically at war with its northern neighbor.

The volleyball issue corresponds to KM#63 within that broader Olympic series, one of dozens of denominations and subjects released under the program.