Dangojeon

The Dangojeon (Hangul: 당오전; Hanja: 當五錢) refers to the 5 mun denomination of the Sangpyeong Tongbo (常平通寶) Korean cash coins introduced in February 1883 following the disastrous introduction of the earlier Dangbaekjeon (當百錢) two decades earlier. The Dangojeon had a nominal value (or face value) that was five times higher than that of the regular yeopjeon, but its purchasing power was just twice as high,[3] like the previous series of high denomination Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coins, this would prove to be a major cause of inflation and disrupted the Korean economy.

Dangojeon
(當五錢)
Joseon
Value5 mun
Diameter30-33[1][2] mm
Thickness2 mm
CompositionCopper-alloy (brass)
Years of minting1883–1892
Obverse
DesignSangpyeong Tongbo (常平通寶)
Design date1633
Design discontinued1892
Reverse
DesignDang O (當五) with a mint mark at the top and other marks placed at the bottom.
Design date1883
Design discontinued1892
Dangbaekjeon
Hangul
당오전
Hanja
當五錢
Revised RomanizationDangojeon
McCune–ReischauerTangochŏn

It was cast in order to pay for the expenditures of the state, the casting of the dangojeon was led by the German adviser Paul Georg von Möllendorff. These cash coins would remain in circulation until July 1894.

Background

When the Dangbaekjeon (當百錢), or 100 mun denomination Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coin, was introduced in 1866 by regent Heungseon Daewongun to finance the state's military expenditures to strengthen Korea's military power to be able to compete with that of the Western powers which were forming an ever growing threat,[4][5] as well as to rebuild the Gyeongbok Palace.[6]

After its introduction the mun started to suffer from inflation, this was because the intrinsic value of the 100 mun coin was only five to six times as much as 5 mun coins, leading to the consumer price of e.g. rice to expand sixfold within 2 years. This eventually lead to traders preferring silver foreign currency such as the Mexican peso, Japanese yen, Russian ruble, and Chinese sycees. As a result of Some people started to melt smaller Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coins down to make counterfeit money.[7] People who had lower denomination Sangpyeong Tongbo avoided to exchange with the value 100 cash coins, so they didn't put their Sangpyeong Tongbo on the market. The new series would be discontinued in April of the year 1867 after being produced only for 172 days.[8] Despite them no longer being produced the government of Joseon continued distributing them onto the Korean market until an appeal from Choe Ik-hyeon convinced the government that these coins had an adverse effect on every class of Korean society.[9]

The introduction of the 100 mun coin happened concurrent with the Tenpō Tsūhō 100 mon coin issued by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1835 (in reaction to government deficit),[10] the 100 wén coin by the Qing dynasty in 1853 (in reaction to the Taiping rebellion),[11] the Ryukyuan 100 mon[12][13] and half Shu cash coins,[14][15][16] and the large denomination Tự Đức Bảo Sao cash coins in Vietnam.[17][18][19] All of these large denomination cash coins also caused inflation on comparable levels.

History

Following the abolition of the Dangbaekjeon, the Korean government introduced the Dangojeon (當五錢, 당오전) in 1883,[20] like the earlier Dangbaekjeon this denomination also caused a sharp decline in the value of coinage which brought a lot of turmoil to the Korean economy.[21] The Dangojeon cash coins were only slightly larger than "value two" Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coins.[22]

The effects that the Dangojeon had caused were not as bad as those that were caused by the gross overvaluing of the Danbaekjeon cash coins, but the effects were nevertheless not beneficial for both the Korean economy and the Korean currency system.[22] Both the Danbaekjeon and the Dangojeon cash coins were symptoms of the considerable turmoil that were occurring within the royal family and its advisers during the reign of King Gojong.[22] From this point onwards, Japanese currency began to flood the Korean market and the Korean mun began to lose its power.[21]

The Korean government was under severe fiscal pressures due to chronic financial difficulties, and new fiscal expenditures such as the costs of dispatching overseas missions, the costs of opening port cities like Busan, Wonsan, and Incheon, and the installation of new military facilities since the opening of Korea in the year 1876. In order to overcome these financial hardships, the Korean government temporarily manufactured the Dae Dong silver coinage in 1882. However, more aggressive monetary reforms were needed to offset rising expenditures since the opening of Korea to foreign trade.[23][24]

The new Dangojeon coin, which was first circulated by the Korean government between the years 1883 and 1884, was partially to blame for a major increase in the inflation as its nominal value was 5 times that of an average yeopjeon, while in reality its true purchasing power was only twice as much due to the fact that the market accepted the coinage based on it intrinsic value rather than its nominal one.[25][26][27][28] In the period from January of the year 1886 until January of the year 1888, the prices of all commodities in Korea would tremendously increase. Imported cotton cloth was sold at 11 mun a piece, this price was almost twice as much as it had cost in October of the year 1884.[25] The price of domestically produced cotton cloth would also increase during this same period of time from 2 mun to 7.8 mun, and that of silk cloth would increase from 5 mun to 10.7 mun, between October of the year 1884 and January of the year 1886.[25] A similar inflationary trend occurred with the price of rice, it was observed that rice was sold in the range of 9 mun and 23.7 mun between January of the year 1886 and January of the year 1888.[25] This ineffective currency reform that was the introduction of the dangojeon had caused a steep inflation in commodity prices throughout Korea.[25]

One of the demands of the peasant armies of the Donghak Peasant Revolution was the banning of the Dangojeon because of its inflationary effects which severely affected Korea's peasant population.[29]

Machine-struck Dangojeon cash coins

During the 1890s the Central Government Mint (典圜局, 전원국) created a machine-struck brass Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coin with a round centre hole.[30][31]

At least three different sets of dies were cut for machine-struck 5 mun Sangpyeong Tongbo cash coins, these designs resembled the 1883 issue 5 mun cast yeopjeon versions of the coins. Only one of these three sets is known to have actually been engraved. In the year 1891 the chief engraver of the Osaka Mint in Japan, Masuda, created this design. Only one of these three designs ever saw (very limited) circulation.[22]

As the Mint's machinery was not well suited for punching centre holes in coins the old-style designs were eventually dropped.[22]

Abolition

After King Gojong established the Jeonwanguk mint in 1883 in Incheon in order to adopt a currency more akin to international standards leading the copper Sangpyeong Tongbo coins to eventually be phased out in favour of the silver yang following the adoption of the silver standard.[32][33][34]

Design

The design of the Dangojeon had the same obverse inscription as other Sangpyeong Tongbo (常平通寶) cash coins, but contained the Hanja characters "當" (당, dang) on the right side of its reverse, and the character "五" (오, o) on its left.[20] As it was minted by various mints it contains different mint marks above the square centre hole on its reverse, and a "furnace designator" or "series number" below the hole.[20]

gollark: Villagers are getting smarter. They can farm now.
gollark: It's based on the TIS-100 game computer's instruction set and design, but with Minecrafty IOs.
gollark: Vaguely relatedly, TIS-3D is a pretty cool mod for simple computers for that kind of task.
gollark: (After + and -, I mean)
gollark: Maybe try division and multiplication (division is probably harder).

References
  1. Numista - 5 Mun (Ho). Retrieved: 09 October 2019.
  2. Numista - 5 Mun (Chon). Retrieved: 09 October 2019.
  3. Ha, W. H. (1999). Gaehanggi Seoului mulga byeondong, 1876-1894 [Price fluctuation in Seoul during the opening port era, 1876-1894]. Seoulhakyeongu, 12, 25-62. Pages: 41–42. (in Korean).
  4. <Veritable records of the Joseon dynasty><조선왕조실록> 고종 3권. 1866.
  5. 원, 유한 (September 1976). "조선후기 화폐정책에 대한 일고찰". 한국사연구. 6: 287–313 – via DBpia.
  6. Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation - Samhantongbo Dangbaekjeon Gold medal - Retrieved: 29 September 2019. (in Korean).
  7. "당백전과 하이퍼인플레이션". 오마이뉴스. 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  8. "당백전(當百錢) - 한국민족문화대백과사전". encykorea.aks.ac.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  9. "조선왕조실록". sillok.history.go.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  10. TAKIZAWA Takeo, (1996) Nihon no Kahei no Rekishi (History of Japanese Currencies) Tokyo, Yoshikawa Kobunkan. (Takizawa p.242).
  11. PENG Xin-Wei, (1958) Zhongguo Huobi Shi (Monetary History of China), second ed., Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, (Peng pp.833-838).
  12. "Ryuukyuuan coins". Luke Roberts at the Department of History - University of California at Santa Barbara. 24 October 2003. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  13. "Japanese Coins Circulating on Perry's Arrival and Shortly Thereafter in the Ryukyu Kingdom". George C. Baxley (Baxley Stamps). Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  14. (日本銀行), Nippon/Nihon Ginkō (1973). "pp. 319-322". Nihon Ginkou Chousakyoku ed., Zuroku Nihon no kahei, vol.1 (Tokyo: Touyou Keizai Shinpousha, 1973). Tokyo: Nihon Ginkō. Chōsakyoku. / Bank of Japan, Economic Research Department.,.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  15. Ryūkyū Tsūhō (in Japanese) Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia, 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryūkyū Shimpō, 1 March 2003. Access date = 8 June 2017.
  16. Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 192.
  17. Art-Hanoi CURRENCY TYPES AND THEIR FACE VALUES DURING THE TỰ ĐỨC ERA. This is a translation of the article "Monnaies et circulation monetairé au Vietnam dans l'ère Tự Đức (1848-1883) by François Thierry de Crussol (蒂埃里). Published in Revue Numismatique 1999 (volume # 154). Pgs 267-313. This translation is from pages 274-297. Translator: Craig Greenbaum. Retrieved: 23 August 2019.
  18. François Thierry de Crussol (蒂埃里) (2011). "The Confucian Message on Vietnamese Coins, A closer look at the Nguyễn dynasty's large coins with moral maxims », Numismatic Chronicle, 2011, pp. 367-406". Academia.edu. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  19. Sudokuone.com The Large Cash Coins of the Nguyễn Emperors. Retrieved: 23 August 2019.
  20. "Korean Coins – 韓國錢幣 - History of Korean Coinage". Gary Ashkenazy / גארי אשכנזי (Primaltrek – a journey through Chinese culture). 16 November 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  21. Not listed (2019). "Korean Currency". National Institute of Korean History. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  22. Joseph E. Boling, NLG (1988). "Korea - A Numismatic Survey. (This article has been transposed to this format from a July 1988 supplement issue included with Coin World. Its original title was: Beyond Cash - A Numismatic Survey of Korea.)" (PDF). Moneta-Coins.com. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  23. 고종실록 (高宗實錄) (in Korean).
  24. 「당오전고(當五錢攷)」(원유한,『역사학보(歷史學報)』 35·36, 1967) (in Korean).
  25. Soon-Young Kim (Seoul National University, South Korea) & Jung Ha-Brookshire (University of Missouri, USA). (13 November 2015). "Cotton Cloth Trades, Currency Reforms, and Inflations: Korean Experiences of the Industrial Revolution from 1883 to 1897". International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings - Iowa State University Digital Repository. Retrieved 9 October 2019.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. 일성록 (日省錄) (in Korean).
  27. 「조선후기화폐정책 (朝鮮後期貨幣政策) 에 대한 일고찰 (一考察)」(원유한,『한국사연구 (韓國史硏究)』 6,1971) (in Korean).
  28. 「 전환국고(典圜局攷)」(원유한,『역사학보(歷史學報)』 37,1968) (in Korean).
  29. Yi, Yihwa (2012). 동학농민운동(평등과 자주를 외친) [The Donghak Peasant Revolution: Claiming for Equality and Statehood] (in Korean). illustrated by Kim Tae-hyun. Seoul: Safari. p. 77. ISBN 9788-9648-0765-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  30. Krause 2009, p. 879.
  31. Numista - 5 Mun Chon - machine-struck. 典 (Chŏn): Central Government Mint. Retrieved: 03 October 2019.
  32. "[Weekender] Korean currency evolves over millennium". Chang Joowon (The Korean Herald – English Edition). 28 August 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  33. XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki 2006 Session 106 Too Commercialised To Synchronize Currencies: Monetary Peasant Economy in Late Imperial China in Comparison with Contemporary Japan by Akinobu Kuroda (University of Tokyo) Retrieved: 11 June 2017
  34. LEE Seok-Ryun (1984) Hanguk Hwapye Geumyungsa Yeongu (Study of Monetary and Financial History of Korea), Seoul, Pakyoungsa. (Lee p.123.)
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