5 Mun Kyun

The Kyunyokchong — the Government Tithe Office — was established in 1750 to administer the Uniform Tax Law, which replaced the deeply resented system of military cloth levies with a standardized grain tax. By 1883, the office had long outlived its original administrative purpose, and its coin issues were among the final gasps of the traditional cash-coin system before the Joseon monetary apparatus was overhauled under Japanese and Western commercial pressure. The minting authority assigned to such offices was fragmented across multiple government bureaus, which is precisely why Korean cash coinage of this period shows such pronounced variation in alloy consistency and flan preparation between issuing offices.