Catalog
1 Mon 'Gindaitsūhō' Normal characters
| Issuer | Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1703 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Copper (Copper alloy) |
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| Obverse description | Cast copper-alloy cash-type coin featuring a central square perforation flanked by four large Chinese characters arranged in cruciform fashion around the hole, reading clockwise from the top: 銀 (gin, silver), 通 (tsū, circulating), 代 (dai, substitute), 寶 (hō, treasure), forming the legend 銀代通寶 (Gindaitsūhō). The characters are rendered in regular script (kaisho) in raised relief against a flat field, with a plain raised rim encircling the design. The overall style follows the traditional East Asian cast coin format. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese (Kanji) |
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| Additional information |
The Gindaitsūhō — literally "silver substitute currency" — was authorized in 1703 as an emergency measure when silver shortages in Edo-period Japan forced the Tokugawa shogunate to introduce copper coinage into circuits where silver had previously dominated. The "normal characters" designation distinguishes standard-script examples from the wave-script and other calligraphic variants produced at different casting facilities, a distinction that matters considerably for attribution to specific mints.
Cast rather than struck, as with all Japanese cash coinage of the period, with sand-mold techniques inherited from Chinese precedent going back centuries.