20 Won Year of the Goat

North Korea has issued commemorative coinage in base metals for export since the 1970s, primarily targeting foreign collectors rather than domestic circulation — hard currency earned abroad was far more valuable to Pyongyang than any numismatic sentiment. This aluminium piece, well outside practical use given its size and metal, fits squarely into that pattern of collector-directed production coordinated through state trading companies like Korea Ryonbong.

The 2010 Lunar Goat issue falls in the Year of the Tiger by the Chinese calendar — the Goat year ran 2003 and would next fall in 2015, raising unresolved questions about the dating conventions applied to this series.