North Korea 50 Won 1978, P-21a, UNC

A dense assembly of soldier, worker and citizens gives way to the still water and distant slopes of the north.

Design & Symbolism

Obverse

A helmeted soldier carries a rifle beside a woman holding wheat, a man raising a torch and a factory worker lifting a volume of Kim Il Sung’s collected works. The Korean word Juche appears among the figures, binding labour, defence and ideology into a compressed group portrait. Their upward gestures animate the otherwise formal green-and-brown face.

Reverse

Lake Samjiyon stretches beneath fir trees and Mount Paektu, replacing the crowded human field with open terrain. The mountain rises beyond the water in measured layers, allowing the reverse to move from collective action toward a carefully framed national landscape.

Collector’s Insight

For collectors, P-21a is the unoverprinted circulation version of the 1978 fifty-won design. Related notes later received seals or guilloches for distinct foreign-exchange channels, while this form retained the original reverse without an added mark. It therefore provides the baseline from which the denomination’s more specialised variants can be read and compared.

Shipping & Guarantee

Each banknote is carefully handled and securely packed to ensure safe delivery. Authenticity is guaranteed.

Serial number and prefix may vary from the reference image.