100 Mon Kumihama Prefecture

Kumihama was a minor han in Tango Province (present-day northern Kyoto Prefecture), and its Commerce Office notes were issued during the chaotic transitional months of the Meiji Restoration — a period when hundreds of local domains scrambled to produce their own paper currency before the new government could establish centralized monetary authority. The 1868 date places this squarely in that window, after the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate but well before the 1871 New Currency Act rationalized the system.

Han notes of this type were formally demonetized and exchanged for Meiji government paper starting in 1872, meaning the circulation window was extremely short. Survival rates for minor han issues from this region are low.