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2 Mun; Small Type Kum; Sun
| Issuer | Korea › Joseon (1392-1897) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1753 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | KM#365, Oseong#18.165 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse displays two Chinese characters arranged around the central square perforation: 禁 (Kum/Geum) at top, identifying the minting authority as the Geumwiyeong (Court Guard Military Unit), and 日 (Il/Sun) at bottom, serving as a series or batch marker. The characters are cast in raised relief in regular script against a plain field, with plain inner and outer rims. Various specimens of this type are known with a concave dot or star-shaped privy mark appearing at different positions around the central hole, including at right, left, 3:30, 5:00, 8:00, and 10:00 positions. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The "Small Type" designation distinguishes this issue from the heavier, broader 2 Mun pieces struck earlier in the Joseon period — a deliberate reduction driven by chronic copper shortages that plagued the royal treasury through the mid-eighteenth century. The Kum inscription identifies the issuing office as the Forbidden Guard, one of several military bureaus authorized to operate furnaces and strike cash coins independently to fund their own operations.
The Sun mark denotes the specific furnace within that bureau. Korean cash coinage of this period is catalogued by office and furnace combination precisely because centralized minting was never fully achieved — a patchwork system that makes complete series assembly genuinely difficult.