Catalog
1 Monme Shibamura
| Issuer | Shibamura Hansatsu Office (芝村札所), Yamato Province |
|---|---|
| Year | 1745 |
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| Value | 1 Monme |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| 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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| Reverse lettering | 和州 芝村 寳〇〇〇〇〇〇〇〇 商賈〇〇國冨〇〇 〇〇〇〇〇〇〇 〇〇〇〇〇〇役 〇〇〇〇〇〇易 開〇〇四達〇〇 〇〇〇〇〇〇〇 所 札 〇〇〇〇〇［邦高］ 酒屋宗八郎（〇〇） 的〇〇〇〇［〇賢］ (Translation: Yamato Province Shibamura [] [] [] [] [] [] [] Note office [] [] []) |
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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.