20 Won Cycling

North Korea issued a series of commemorative brass pieces in the late 2000s targeting the foreign currency collector market — hard currency the regime badly needed. These were never intended to circulate domestically and were sold through state-controlled export channels, primarily routed through dealers in China and Europe.

The 2008 date places this issue in the period immediately following the country's first nuclear test in 2006, when international sanctions were tightening and such numismatic exports represented one of dozens of small hard-currency income streams the DPRK actively cultivated.