Catalog
1 Bu Minbushō-satsu
| Issuer | Minbushō (Ministry of Popular Affairs) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869-1870 |
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| Currency | Ryō (1595-1874) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress print with red and blue overstamps on a narrow vertical note. The upper register presents the denomination vertically within a scrollwork frame adorned with Chrysanthemum seals and 5-7 Paulownia seals, overlaid with a red circular stamped seal. A blue rectangular stamped seal occupies the intermediate zone, while the lower register carries vertical inscriptions enclosed within a frame of two confronting dragons. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 明治己巳發行 確證 (Translation: Meiji [year] tsuchinoto-mi (Year of the Earth-Snake) issue Confirm) |
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| Comments |
The Minbushō-satsu were among the first government-issued paper notes of the Meiji period, produced under the short-lived Ministry of Popular Affairs before it was absorbed into the Ōkurashō (Finance Ministry) in 1870. That administrative merger effectively ended the series, which gives these notes an unusually narrow issuance window of under two years.
The extreme elongation of the format follows a deliberate borrowing from traditional Japanese printed formats — hansatsu domain notes had conditioned the public to vertical, narrow paper currency for generations. Meiji reformers were modernizing the currency system but not yet willing to break entirely from familiar physical conventions.