Mun Pi

The Mun Pi was issued by the Joseon government's Pigeon Bureau — one of dozens of competing government offices and military agencies authorized to operate their own mints during the 18th century. This proliferation of issuing authorities was a deliberate fiscal strategy: each bureau retained seigniorage from its own output, creating chronic inconsistencies in alloy quality and module across nominally identical denominations. The 1742 date places this piece within the reign of Yeongjo, who made repeated attempts to rationalize the coinage system without ever fully consolidating it.

Oseong #18.17 distinguishes this by mint office, a distinction that matters considerably for attribution.