Ashimori was among the smallest domains in Bitchū Province — assessed at just 25,000 koku — and its han-satsu program reflects that scale. Notes like this 2 fun piece were issued under the domain's own authority to manage chronic shortages of copper coin, a problem that plagued small han throughout the Kyōhō period following the Tokugawa bakufu's currency retractions of the 1710s and 1720s. The 1730 issue date places this squarely in that period of local monetary improvisation.
Authentication relied on official ink stamps applied at the domain office — the stamps themselves, rather than any printing complexity, were the primary barrier against forgery.
Ashimori was among the smallest domains in Bitchū Province — assessed at just 25,000 koku — and its han-satsu program reflects that scale. Notes like this 2 fun piece were issued under the domain's own authority to manage chronic shortages of copper coin, a problem that plagued small han throughout the Kyōhō period following the Tokugawa bakufu's currency retractions of the 1710s and 1720s. The 1730 issue date places this squarely in that period of local monetary improvisation.
Authentication relied on official ink stamps applied at the domain office — the stamps themselves, rather than any printing complexity, were the primary barrier against forgery.