2 Won Fisher Ahn Yongbok

This issue is one of several brass pieces struck by the DPRK in the early 2000s explicitly for foreign collectors rather than domestic circulation — North Korean won coins of this period were essentially non-functional as currency inside the country, where a parallel system of Foreign Exchange Certificates governed hard-currency transactions. Ahn Yongbok was a 15th-century Joseon-era figure who twice sailed to Japan to assert Korean sovereignty over Ulleungdo and Dokdo, islands still contested between South Korea and Japan today. Pyongyang's decision to commemorate him is transparently political.