100 Mun Ho

Issued to fund the reconstruction of Gyeongbokgung Palace, ordered by the Heungseon Daewongun following its destruction during the Imjin War some two and a half centuries earlier, this coin was an emergency fiscal measure rather than a routine monetary issue. The face value of 100 mun — grossly inflated relative to the standard one-mun cash coins already in circulation — triggered immediate economic disruption. Merchants refused it at face value, the public hoarded conventional coinage, and rampant inflation followed within months. Production was halted by 1867, less than a year after striking began.