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100 Mon 'Morioka-Dōzan'

Issuer Morioka Domain
Year 1866
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Value 100 Mon
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Reverse description Oval cast flan with a central square perforation mirroring the obverse layout. Above the hole, the two Kanji characters '百文' (100 Mon) are cast in bold, raised relief, denoting the face value. Below the hole, the two characters '通用' (Current Use / Legal Tender) appear in equally prominent relief, affirming the coin's circulation status. The granular, unpolished field is consistent with the domain's sand-cast production method. The plain oval edge is unadorned, and the overall fabric closely matches the obverse in style and execution.
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Mint Morioka Copper Mine
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Additional information

Morioka Domain — a Tōzama han in Mutsu Province under the Nanbu clan — issued this piece during the final, fractured years of Tokugawa authority, when dozens of domains across Japan were producing their own emergency copper coinage to address chronic shortages of small denomination currency. The Nanbu clan had held Morioka since the early Edo period, but by the 1860s the broader monetary system was destabilizing under pressure from foreign trade, gold outflows, and the political crisis that would culminate in the Meiji Restoration just two years later.

The "Dōzan" designation references the domain's copper mining operations — Nanbu copper had been a significant export commodity for generations.

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