20 Won Arctic Bear

North Korea's domestic coinage of this period occupied an odd niche — technically legal tender but largely divorced from everyday commerce, which operated through a parallel system of foreign exchange certificates and informal markets. The 2009 currency redenomination, which wiped out private savings by capping exchanges at a punishing rate, had badly eroded public trust in state-issued money by the time this piece was struck.

Arctic bear issues from this era were produced primarily for the collector export market, generating hard currency for the state rather than circulating domestically.