5 Won Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

North Korea's commemorative coinage of the early 2000s was largely produced for the export collector market, with virtually no domestic circulation — hard currency was the point, not numismatic sentiment. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901, and the centenary of that award prompted several issuing authorities worldwide to put him on metal. Pyongyang was among them, which places this coin in an unexpectedly crowded commemorative field for that anniversary year.