Catalog
1 Monme
| Issuer | Japan (Local Han/Domain Issuer) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1700-1868 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Tall, narrow note with a dense woodblock-printed design on thin mulberry paper; the central field carries a large bold kanji cartouche surrounded by swirling cloud and wave motifs, with figurative vignettes at the upper register. Red and blue hand-applied seal impressions appear over the black-printed ground, consistent with Edo-period han-satsu authentication practice. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 銀目 |
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| Comments |
Han bills (hansatsu) circulated as local scrip within individual feudal domains throughout the Edo period, forbidden by the Tokugawa shogunate in theory but tolerated in practice wherever domain finances demanded it. The monme was a silver weight unit, so these notes functioned as silver-denominated obligations rather than representations of coin — a meaningful distinction in a monetary system where gold, silver, and copper each operated on separate, floating exchange rates.
Attribution to a specific issuing han is often impossible without legible seal impressions, and many surviving examples have faded or smudged stamps. The seal was the entire authentication mechanism.