commemorative: North Korea - 70th Year of Anniversary of Independence 1948-2018

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Total commemorative banknotes issued is under 1,500 pieces. If you have achieved any figures close to this, then you are doing extremely well, as many of the older commemorative notes are hard to find even in poor conditions.

Opinion: Many collectors of commemorative banknotes would have come across with those Somaliland sets overprinted with gold and silver texts with the following wordings - 5th Anniversary of Independence 18 May 1996 [Sanad Gurade 5ee Gobanimadda 18 May 1996]. I believe these are "home made" (or fake) and not authorised by the central bank. My argument is simple. No central bank would have issued an overprint commemorative banknote that the texts are so large that it would cover the two signatures on the note as well as part of the serial numbers. Even if these are genuine notes, then these could be issued as souvenir sheets and not as legal tender. As I said before, this is my opinion. If you have paid top dollars for these, please think about my argument. There is always a sucker around the corner, including me of course!

All comments are most welcome but it has to be subjects related to banknotes or banknotes collection. If not, it will not be approved. Thanks

17 February 2019

North Korea - 70th Year of Anniversary of Independence 1948-2018

조선민주주의인민공화국
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)

Central Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

조선민주주의인인공화국, 장건70돐1948-2018 (The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, 70th Year of Independence 1948-2018).

Two commemorative notes with year dates 1948-1918 overprint, celebrating the nation's 70th Year of Independence. These notes have the face values of 1000 and 2000 won respectively.

I understand that the North Korean won are not negotiable outside the country nor it holds any value against any foreign currencies. In North Korea, the Chinese yuan, USD, Euro and the Japanese yen are acceptable in certain designated shopping centers for foreigners.

Update; 20.07.2019 (200and 500 won) & 14.02.2020 (50 won)
I have added these two notes of 50, 200 and 500 Won to this posting. These notes are printed with the same text as the 1000 and 2000 won below. In addition to the text, it also printed two other Korean words on the right side of the notes - "기념" (ginyeon) in red. In straight Google translation in English, it means "Commemoration". As you can see, those two notes issued earlier do not have these 기념 words added to the notes. Also the colours of the commemorative text are not the same either. It is not sure if all these were printed all at the same time or they were printed as and when required. I wonder if there are other denominations (5, 10, 50, 100 and 5000 won) issued for this commemorative series, and I am not surprised if we see more issued at a later date.

From the three notes (50, 200 and 500 won), the commemorative tests are printed with a lager font (in red) than those 1000 and 2000 won issued earlier. Therefore it is unsure if all these notes were printed at the same time or separately.

Fifty Won