Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Bu Silver bill exchange office Matsusaka Mitsui-gumi Community
| Issuer | Mitsui-gumi (三井組), Matsusaka Exchange Office |
|---|---|
| Year | 1835-1871 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 組井三 三三三 井井井 八宗則 郎十右 兵郎衛 衛 門 門 (Translation: Mitsui Group Mitsui Noriemon Mitsui Sojuro Mitsui Hachiroheimon) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Red vermilion ink seal (inkan) impressions of the Mitsui-gumi Matsusaka exchange office, applied to both obverse and reverse as authentication marks. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Matsusaka Mitsui-gumi was not a bank in any modern institutional sense — it was the merchant house operation of the Mitsui family, whose money-changing and exchange activities in Matsusaka predated their later transformation into the Mitsui zaibatsu. These privately issued silver denomination bills (ginpu) circulated as working credit instruments within a local commercial network, accepted on the strength of Mitsui's name rather than any state guarantee.
The long validity window reflects the reality of late Edo and early Meiji transition: notes issued under the old merchant-house system were tolerated until the Meiji government's 1871 currency reforms forced their retirement.