5 Chon General issue

North Korea's first domestic coinage series, introduced in 1959, was partly a practical necessity — the country had relied on Soviet-occupation currency and then provisional issues through the early post-war years — but also a deliberate act of national consolidation under Kim Il-sung's emerging personality cult. Aluminium was the logical choice given chronic shortages of copper and zinc following the destruction of the Korean War.

The series ran until 1974 with little modification, an unusual production span for a country that periodically reshuffled its monetary apparatus for political reasons.