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[[File:Koreancoins.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Two 10th-11th c. coins from [[Goryeo]], imprinted ''Dongguk'' and ''Samhan''. British Museum.]]
The earliest Korean coins were minted and circulated for about one hundred years, from about the 990s to around 1105. Based on [[Tang Dynasty]] [[Chinese currency]], the coins were imprinted with terms including ''Haedong'' ("[[Sea of Japan|East Sea]]"), ''Samhan'' ("[[Three Kingdoms (Korea)|Three Kingdoms]]"), and ''Dongguk'' ("Eastern Kingdom").
The earliest Korean coins were minted and circulated for about one hundred years, from about the 990s to around 1105. Based on [[Tang Dynasty]] [[Chinese currency]], the earliest coins reproduced Tang inscriptions, while later ones, minted around [[1097]]-[[1102]], were imprinted with terms indicative of Korea's independent identity,<ref>Gallery labels, British Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/47588044022/sizes/k/]</ref> such as ''Haedong'' ("[[Sea of Japan|East Sea]]"), ''Samhan'' ("[[Three Kingdoms (Korea)|Three Kingdoms]]"), and ''Dongguk'' ("Eastern Kingdom").
Such coins have mainly been found in excavations at [[Kaesong]], the capital of [[Goryeo]], and do not seem to have circulated widely to/in other parts of the peninsula.
Such coins have mainly been found in excavations at [[Kaesong]], the capital of [[Goryeo]], and do not seem to have circulated widely to/in other parts of the peninsula.
In the early modern period, from [[1678]] until the late 19th century, some fifty different agencies across Korea produced coins called ''sangpyeong tongbo'' (常平通宝). These "stabilization coins" were named after the [[Joseon]] court's efforts at stabilizing the economy through limiting taxes, from payments in kind (grain and various other products), to more strictly having to be paid either in coin, cotton, or rice.
Modern Korean currency might be said to have gotten its start in [[1882]], with the introduction of the ''Daedong eunjeon'', or "silver coin of the Great East," which filled in the square hole traditionally found at the center of East Asian coins. Due to dramatic changes in the price of [[silver]], these coins were taken out of circulation the following year. The year after that, in [[1884]], Seoul's central mint began mass-producing coins by machine for the first time, in silver and bronze.
Today, the Korean currency is known as the ''won''. Exchange rates fluctuate, but very roughly tend to stand around 10 won to the yen, or 1000 won to the US dollar.
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==References==
==References==
*British Museum gallery labels.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/22597662270/in/dateposted-public/]
*British Museum gallery labels.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/22597662270/in/dateposted-public/][https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/22164516853/sizes/l][https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/22597671590/in/photostream/]
[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:Economics]]