Catalog
1 Yen Japanese serial
| Issuer | Bank of Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black on orange underprint, with an intaglio portrait of the legendary elder statesman Takenouchi no Sukune set within an oval guilloche vignette at right, his long white beard rendered in fine detail. The central field carries the denomination 壹圓 (One Yen) in bold kanji within a circular orange underprint, surrounded by cursive Japanese text stating the silver redemption promise, with the Bank of Japan title 日本銀行兌換銀券 across the top. Elaborate foliate border ornaments frame all four corners, with the imperial chrysanthemum crest at top centre, serial numbers in red at upper left and right, and the imprint of the Imperial Japanese Government Ministry of Finance Printing Bureau along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Pick 26 belongs to the second series of Bank of Japan convertible notes — convertible, in theory, into silver. The 1889 Convertible Silver Notes were issued under the Bank of Japan Act framework that had been in place since 1882, but the silver convertibility guarantee was effectively suspended during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and never meaningfully restored thereafter. Notes already in circulation simply continued as inconvertible paper.
Printed entirely domestically by the Ministry of Finance's own bureau, this series marks Japan's deliberate move away from reliance on foreign printers — a policy choice rooted in Meiji-era industrialization priorities as much as in security concerns.