Identifying Chinese VS Korean Unlimited Base Set Energy

[packyman]

Did a little scientific research and have hopefully determined a good method for identifying a Chinese VS Korean Unlimited Base set energy card.

It is extremely difficult to tell the two apart at first glance.

I personally pulled both of these cards from a pack and a deck. Under analysis there are slight differences in the card copyright layout, otherwise they are extremely similar in appearance.

It appears Korean will have the Copyright symbol much closer to the artist attribution. Chinese will appear to have essentially a double space, and Korean a single space.

(Yellow is Korean)

Chinese Lightning:

Korean Fire:

[D3F14NC3]

Now these are the details and minute variations I love to hear about on E4. Great info!

[Quuador]

Awesome info, @packyman! Thanks for sharing.

Out of curiosity, does the English ©1999-2000 unlimited edition print run have a difference with both of these as well? I once mentioned this for determining the Base Set Energy language:

@Quuador

Base Set Energies may all look very similar in all languages, but almost all of them can still be differentiated from one another (all the important parts are bold):

• English Shadowless (both 1st and non-1st): ©1995, 96, 98**, 99** + ©1999 + Energy
• English unlimited edition: ©1995, 96, 98 + ©1999 + Energy
• English unlimited edition UK 4th print: ©1995, 96, 98 + ©1999-2000 + Energy
• Dutch (both 1st and UED): ©1999-2000 + Energie
• German (both 1st and UED): ©1999 + Energie
• French (both 1st and UED): ©1999 + Énergie
• Italian (both 1st and UED): ©1999-2000 + Energia
• Spanish from Latin America (both 1st and UED): ©1999 + Energía
• Spanish from Spain (both 1st and UED): ©1999-2000 + Energía
• Portuguese (both 1st and UED): ©1999 + Energia
• Korean (both 1st and UED): ©1995, 96, 98 + ©1999-2000 + Energy
• Chinese (both 1st and UED): ©1995, 96, 98 + ©1999-2000 + Energy

As you can see, the only ones you are unable to differentiate from one another are the 1st editions of the Korean or Chinese Energy cards (both ©1999-2000 + Energy), nor the unlimited editions of the English UK 4th print, Korean, or Chinese Energy cards (all three ©1999-2000 + Energy as well). For every other Energy you are able to determine its language based on the copyright year and Energy translation used.

Thanks to you, the Korean and Chinese ones now can be distinguished from one another for the 1st edition ©1999-2000 Energy cards, but I was wondering if they can also somehow be distinguished (visually like that) from the English ©1999-2000 unlimited edition print run.

Oh, and thanks for ‘sacrificing’ the booster pack and deck you’ve pulled these Energies from, in case you did so recently or on purpose.

Greetz,
Quuador

[packyman]

I did some quick analysis. Under black light, the Korean Pokemon text on the back appears to glow brighter than all others, except Australia which is extremely vibrant.

The Chinese front glows brighter than the Korean front. But it is somewhere in between Australia and UK, nowhere near how bright the USA front glows.

It appears like only Australia and Chinese have the excess space between copyright and illustrator text.

Other than USA front / Australia back, it’s pretty difficult to identify any one of the 5 individually without comparing to known examples.

Order here is Chinese, Korean, USA, UK, Australia