20 Won Year of the Goat

North Korea's commemorative program has since the 1970s functioned less as a numismatic enterprise than as a foreign currency operation — these pieces were struck almost exclusively for export sale to collectors, generating hard currency for a state chronically starved of it. The goat year issues fall within the broader Chinese zodiac series that Pyongyang produced systematically across multiple denominations, with distribution handled largely through intermediaries in China and specialist dealers in Europe.

KM#484 sees a production window spanning seven years, which is unusually protracted for a zodiac type and likely reflects slow inventory drawdown rather than continued striking.