The Hyonhwa Pagoda — a Tang-influenced stone structure surviving on the grounds of the former Koryo dynasty national academy at Kaesong — became the subject of a sustained North Korean cultural heritage campaign in the 2000s as the regime sought to assert ownership of the peninsula's pre-division history. The Songyungwan complex itself dates to 992 AD and was heavily damaged during the Korean War before partial reconstruction. This brass issue from 2010 is one of several oversized collector pieces the Central Bank produced for the hard-currency export market, not domestic circulation — North Korean won coins of this weight and diameter never passed through ordinary hands.
The Hyonhwa Pagoda — a Tang-influenced stone structure surviving on the grounds of the former Koryo dynasty national academy at Kaesong — became the subject of a sustained North Korean cultural heritage campaign in the 2000s as the regime sought to assert ownership of the peninsula's pre-division history. The Songyungwan complex itself dates to 992 AD and was heavily damaged during the Korean War before partial reconstruction. This brass issue from 2010 is one of several oversized collector pieces the Central Bank produced for the hard-currency export market, not domestic circulation — North Korean won coins of this weight and diameter never passed through ordinary hands.