Catalog
10 Yen
| Issuer | Dai Nihon Teikoku Seifu (Imperial Japanese Government) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Yen (10 JPY) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio printing with blue seals and serial numbers in red and green. The central field carries text and official seals, flanked by vignettes of Gagaku court musicians at left and right. The bank branch name and printer's imprint appear at the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Dark green on black underprint. The central vignette presents Empress Jingu on horseback in battle, rendered in detailed intaglio engraving. Obverse and reverse faces of a 10-yen Meiji 4 (1871) coin are depicted at left and right respectively, with blocks of text at top and bottom and a half red seal at the lower edge. |
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| Comments |
Japan's Meiji government turned to American bank note printers in the early 1870s as part of a deliberate modernization strategy — domestic security printing infrastructure simply did not yet exist at the required scale or technical standard. The Continental Bank Note Company, then competing fiercely with the American Bank Note Company for foreign government contracts, produced this series alongside other early Meiji currency issues.
Continental's New York operation folded in 1878 when it merged into the American Bank Note Company, making any note from this printer inherently time-bounded to a narrow production window.