20 Won National Emblem Elements

North Korea's hard-currency commemorative program, active through the 1990s, existed almost entirely for export — these coins were never intended to circulate domestically and were sold abroad through state trading companies to generate foreign exchange. The 1996 issues appeared during the catastrophic famine period known as the Arduous March, when the country was losing hundreds of thousands of citizens to starvation while simultaneously minting .999 silver collectibles for Western and Asian numismatic markets.