Catalog
1 Monme Shibamura
| Issuer | Shibamura Hansatsu Office (芝村札所), Yamato Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1745 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Tall, narrow vertical note with the central denomination inscription 銀壹匁 (Gin Ichi-Monme, "Silver One Monme") running down the middle column, flanked on the right by the date inscription 延享貮乙丑年 (Enkyō 2nd, kinoto-ushi year, 1745) and on the left by 五月吉祥日 (Fifth month, auspicious day). Additional vertical columns of text appear on either side of the central field, with supplementary inscriptions and a small vignette at the lower portion of the note bordered by further official script. |
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| Obverse lettering | 延享貮乙丑年 〇手形〇〇多〇 銀壹匁 札〇〇〇引 五月吉祥日 〇手形〇銀引〇 可〇〇者也 (Translation: Enkyō 2nd kinoto-ushi year [] Silver one monme [] Fifth month auspicious day [] []) |
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| Comments |
Hansatsu — feudal domain currency issued by local authorities, merchants, or temples — were technically illegal under Tokugawa law for most of the Edo period, yet tens of thousands of distinct types circulated freely across Japan because the central government lacked the administrative reach to suppress them. The Shibamura office in Yamato Province (modern Nara Prefecture) was one of countless such local issuers operating in that grey zone.
The monme denomination is a silver-weight unit, meaning this note nominally represented a claim against silver rather than gold or copper cash — a distinction that mattered considerably to rural merchants doing daily exchange. Whether the Shibamura office maintained any real metallic reserve behind it is, as with most hansatsu, unknown.