Catalog
20 Sen
| Issuer | Dai-Ichi Bank (第一銀行) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904 |
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| Value | 20 Sen (0.20) |
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| Obverse description | Olive-green note with an elaborate floral and geometric border composed of interlocking guilloche patterns in light teal. The central vignette presents two confronted phoenixes above a pair of mirrored dragons flanking a vertical cartouche bearing the bank name in kanji. Denomination characters appear in each corner, with a date inscription in kanji along the lower margin reading Meiji 37 (1904). |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 券面ノ金額ハ在韓國各支店ニ於テ同生通貨ト引換スル可ク候也 |
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| Comments |
Dai-Ichi Ginko — the First National Bank of Japan — had a peculiar extraterritorial role in Korea from the 1870s onward, effectively functioning as the de facto central bank of the Joseon kingdom and later the Korean Empire before any formal annexation occurred. This 20 Sen note, issued in 1904, belongs to a series that circulated primarily on the Korean peninsula rather than in Japan proper, used to finance Japanese commercial activity and, increasingly, military logistics during the Russo-Japanese War, which broke out in February of that year.
Dai-Ichi's Korean note issues were eventually absorbed into the new Bank of Korea system in 1909, making this series short-lived by design.