100 Mon 'Akita-Tsubasen' Bosen, Long tail

Kubota Domain — present-day Akita Prefecture — issued this oversized copper piece in 1862 as one of several emergency monetary instruments produced by Japanese domains in the final, fractured years of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Bakumatsu period saw dozens of han governments striking their own coinage to address chronic copper shortages and the economic disruption that followed Commodore Perry's forced opening of Japanese ports less than a decade earlier.

The "long tail" designation distinguishes this die variety from the short-tail Tsubasen strikes of the same issue — a distinction that matters considerably to specialists. KM# Pn1 classification suggests the piece was treated as a pattern or provisional issue rather than standard domain currency.