Korean yang
[2] The mintage and circulation of modern currency began during the last years of the Joseon dynasty as a result of contact with the West, using equipment to produce machine-struck coins purchased from Germany in 1883.[4] The Incheon Mint prepared a completely new line of coins with very heavily inspired Japanese designs, this series also included the first copper-nickel of Korea.[5] However, the timing of this relocation was very unfortunate as the Korean Empire had started the construction of the Gyeongin Line which opened on 18 September 1899[6] and allowed for coins minted in Incheon to be transported at a wider distance.[5] Minting equipment from Incheon was moved to Yongsan in September of the year 1900 and cupronickel coins at this time were struck in small quantities.The Yongsan Mint would close in November 1904 after the Japanese Empire took the rights of issuing money for circulation in Korea.[4] The reason why Yuan Shikai demanded this was because Korea, which at the time was a vassal state of the Qing dynasty, said that the inclusion of the character "大" was an affront to the Chinese Empire.Not long after these new copper coins were introduced, black market counterfeit versions of the 10 wén appeared, illegal mints or "private mints" (局私) opened all over China and started producing more coins than the Qing government's set quotas allowed there to be circulating on the market.Joseon began minting modern-style machine-struck copper coins in 1892, which was 8 years before the Qing dynasty did so in China.These coins were often minted by Korean businessmen and former Japanese Samurai (specifically Rōnin) looking to make a profit on exchanging the low value copper coins into silver dollars as a single Chinese silver dollar had the purchasing power of 1000 Korean fun.