Volta
EconomyAD 996

Geonwon Jungbo Coins Minted

Under Seongjong, Goryeo cast the iron Geonwon Jungbo, the first metal currency issued by a Korean state.

In 996 Seongjong had iron coins cast. They copied the Tang Qianyuan zhongbao, with the same characters on the face and "Dongguk" (Eastern Country) on the back to mark them as Goryeo coins — counted as the first metal currency in Korean history.

In a largely self-sufficient economy people kept trading with grain and hemp cloth, and the coins never circulated widely. Money was minted again only about a century later, when Sukjong set up the Mint (Jujeon Dogam).

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States and rulers at the time
Goryeo — Seongjong

People

  • King SeongjongAD 960 – AD 997

    monarch · Sixth king of Goryeo, who adopted Choe Seung-ro’s 28-article memorial and built a Confucian central and local administration

Before and after

Earlier
AD 995 Two Armies, Six Guards and the Provincial Forces
Later
AD 998 Revised Jeonsigwa

Themes that include this event

  • History of Korean CurrencyAD 996 – 1905

    From Geonwon Jungbo to the 1905 currency reform — how coins took hold in an economy of rice and cloth, and how monetary sovereignty was lost