| Descripción del anverso |
Central square perforation surrounded by a raised square border, with four Chinese characters in archaic seal script (tensho) disposed one in each quadrant of the field, read clockwise from the top: 熙 (top), 寧 (right), 元 (bottom), 寶 (left), together forming the legend 熙寧元寶. The characters are boldly rendered in the ornate, curvilinear style characteristic of Song-dynasty seal script coinage, here cast in imitation of earlier Chinese prototypes. A plain raised rim encircles the entire design. |
| Escritura del anverso |
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| Leyenda del anverso |
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| Descripción del reverso |
Plain, essentially featureless field surrounding a central square perforation with a raised square rim. The surface shows no inscriptions, symbols, or decorative elements, presenting a flat, unadorned appearance typical of cast Japanese trade coinage of the Edo period. |
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| Canto |
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| Casa de moneda |
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| Tirada |
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Nagasaki's municipal coinage authority issued this piece under license from the Tokugawa shogunate, which had consolidated foreign trade through Nagasaki as the sole legal port for Dutch and Chinese merchants. The city — not the central government — bore responsibility for producing exchange currency suitable for that specific commercial environment, which explains the unusual municipal issuing authority for an otherwise feudal monetary system.
The seal script style links this issue directly to Chinese numismatic convention, a deliberate nod to the Chinese merchant community whose trade volume at Dejima made them indispensable to the port's economy.