Catalog
10 Yen
| Issuer | Bank of Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1930 |
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| Reference(s) | P#40 |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 10 849081 {722} 10 券換究行銀本日 日 拾 相此 10 本 圓 渡券 銀 可引 行 申換 候に 金 貨 拾 圓 10 {722} 849081 10 造幣局刷印閣内府政國帝本日大 (Translation: Bank of Japan convertible note Bank of Japan Ten yen This bill can be exchanged for ten yen in gold Imperial Government of Japan Cabinet Printing Bureau) |
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| Variants | P#40a - issued note P#40z(1) - with propaganda message on back P#40z(2) - with propaganda message on back P#40z(3) - with propaganda message on back The purpose of this message was to stir Japanese resentment against their government and to create fear of inflation. Translation of the text on back: In 1930, when the Gumbatsu (militarists) had not yet started the war in China, you could buy the following items for 10 yen: * 25 sho (about 20 Kg) of good rice. * Or material for 8 summer kimonos. * Or 4 bags (50 Kg packages) of charcoal. In 1937, after the start of the Occupation of China, you could buy the following for 10 yen: * 25 sho of low grade rice. * Or material for 5 summer kimonos. * Or 2 bags of charcoal. Today, after three years of hopeless warfare with the world's greatest powers, you can buy the following with 10 yen: * 1/2 sho of good rice in the black market. * Or a small amount of charcoal, if you can get it. * Cotton material: nothing. This is what your leaders call co-prosperity! |
| Comments |
The Bank of Japan's series issued around 1930 was produced domestically by the Cabinet Printing Bureau — unusual at the time given that many Asian central banks still relied on European printers for prestige issues. Japan's insistence on in-house production reflected a deliberate policy of printing self-sufficiency that had been building since the Meiji period.
This denomination circulated through a period of acute economic strain: Japan had returned to the gold standard in January 1930, only to abandon it again less than two years later under the pressure of the Great Depression and capital flight. Notes of this type were actively circulating during that whipsaw transition.