Catalog
5 Won Socialist Visitor
| Issuer | Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea |
|---|---|
| Year | 1988 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 외화와바꾼돈표 1988 조선민주주의인민공화국무역은행 5 오원 (Translation: Foreign currency exchange, Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Five Won) |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in red on a cream-toned ground and centres on a large, elaborate guilloche rosette enclosing the bold numeral "5" within a scalloped cartouche. To the left, a globe vignette overlaid with a stylised olive branch in blue provides a contrasting accent. The issuer's name in Korean appears at the upper left, with the denomination "오 원" in large Korean characters at the lower left and the year 1988 inscribed along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
North Korea maintained separate currency systems for foreign visitors well into the late Cold War period, and this note belongs to that infrastructure — a denomination usable only by socialist-bloc tourists and trade delegates, distinct from the hard-currency certificates issued to capitalist visitors. The distinction mattered: where you spent your money determined what goods you could access, and the DPRK used that segregation to control both foreign exchange capture and the exposure of its citizens to outside economic influence.
The Foreign Trade Bank series of 1988 is among the last issued before North Korea began consolidating and eventually phasing out its visitor certificate system in the 1990s.