10 Won Korean Folk III-Wrestling

Part of the DPRK's sustained output of silver commemoratives produced through the 1990s for the international collector market — a hard currency earner during the famine years of the Arduous March, when the state desperately needed foreign exchange. These coins were never intended for domestic circulation and most North Koreans would never have seen one.

Ssireum, the wrestling tradition depicted, has documented roots going back to the Goryeo period and retains genuine cultural prestige in both Koreas.