Catalog
1 Yen
| Issuer | Imperial Japanese Government |
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| Year | 1873 |
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| Printer | Continental Bank Note Company, New York, United States (1863-1878) |
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| Obverse description | At left, a vignette of a Western-style sailing ship; at right, a figure identified as Daji, a warrior of the Emperor Nintoku period (alternatively attributed to Minamoto no Tametomo, the legendary archer of great stature said to have sunk a vessel with his arrows). Red Arabic serial number appears at upper left, issued by the Ministry of Finance, while a green vertical serial number in Chinese characters for the National Bank is present at right. |
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| Reverse description | Central vignette illustrates the defeat of Mongol forces in Hakata Harbor, rendered in a detailed intaglio composition. The scene is flanked on the right by the obverse of the gold 1 Yen coin and on the left by its reverse, serving as symbolic references to the note's monetary value. |
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| Comments |
Japan's early Meiji government turned to American bank note printers for its first generation of Western-style currency — the Continental Bank Note Company of New York was among several firms engaged during the 1870s as Japan rebuilt its monetary infrastructure following the abolition of the feudal domain notes that had fragmented circulation. This P#10 was part of that transitional program, produced offshore before Japan had developed domestic printing capacity capable of meeting Western intaglio standards.
Continental itself would cease operations by 1878, absorbed into the American Bank Note Company consolidation, making the window for notes bearing their imprint relatively narrow.