Expert: Brad Swain - 4/19/2010

Question
I got change at a restaurant and instead of getting a quarter I received some sort of chinese coin. The coin is silver, has a man on the front of the coin along with what looks to be chinese characters on each side of his head, on the back it has 1994 on the top of the coin with 100 directly below that with 4 characters at the bottom.

Answer
Hi Jerry, This is a copper-nickel 100 Won coin from South Korea featuring Admiral Lee Soon-shin who defeated a Japanese invasion fleet with 'turtle boats' beginning in 1592.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Sun-sin
There were 401 million minted that year. Collector value may be worth about .10 with heavy wear to around .25 with moderate wear to maybe $1 with light wear to perhaps $2 if uncirculated (no wear) depending on amount of collector demand.
You might also try a library for a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins for pictures, values and lots more interesting info.
Brad