50 Won Heo Jun

Heo Jun was a royal physician during the Joseon Dynasty whose encyclopedic medical text, Dongui Bogam, was completed in 1613 after 25 years of compilation under royal commission. The work systematized traditional Korean medicine and identified thousands of local remedies, explicitly replacing dependence on imported Chinese ingredients — a politically pointed project that resonated with Joseon nationalist sentiment. North Korea claims Heo Jun as part of its cultural patrimony, issuing commemorative pieces like this one as part of a broader program asserting ownership of pre-partition Korean history.