2500 Won Panda

North Korea's panda-themed issues from the mid-1990s were produced almost entirely for the foreign collector market — hard currency the DPRK desperately needed as the country entered the famine years known as the Arduous March. Pyongyang had no functional numismatic collecting culture domestically, so these coins were minted, exported, and sold through intermediaries in China and Europe without ever circulating within the country that issued them.

KM#551 is among the heavier issues of the series, struck at 155.5 g — a specification that competes directly with Chinese Kilo-class bullion formats, almost certainly by design.