100 Won Sprinter

Issued by the DPRK during a period when the regime was actively courting hard currency through foreign coin sales, this piece was never intended for domestic circulation. North Korea's relationship with the international numismatic market began in earnest during the 1980s, with the Foreign Trade Bank and later authorized mints producing collector issues sold almost exclusively through European and Asian dealers — the domestic population had no access to them.

KM#71 was struck at a time when the country was entering the worst famine in its modern history, the so-called Arduous March, making the hard-currency revenue from such issues an uncomfortable footnote.