10 Chon General issue

North Korea's 1959 aluminum coinage was part of the first domestic issue produced after the Korean War armistice, as Kim Il-sung's government worked to establish an independent monetary infrastructure distinct from the Soviet and Chinese-backed systems that had sustained the wartime economy. The Central Bank had been formally established in 1946, but coherent small-denomination coinage took over a decade to materialize in aluminum.

KM#3 is the general circulation issue, distinguished in the catalog from the hard-currency tourist issues introduced later for foreign exchange shops.