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20 Sen - Meiji

Issuer Imperial Japanese Mint
Year 1873-1905
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Value 20 Sen (0.20 JPY)
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Obverse script Japanese/Latin
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Mintage 6 (1873) - 年六治明 - 5,214,284
7 (1874) - 年七治明 - 3,024,242
8 (1875) - 年八治明 - 612,736
9 (1876) - 年九治明 - 9,200,892
10 (1877) - 年十治明 - 5,199,731
13 (1880) - 年三十治明 - 96
18 (1885) - 年八十治明 - 4,205,723
20 (1887) - 年十二治明 - 4,794,755
21 (1888) - 年一十二治明 - 703,920
24 (1891) - 年四十二治明 - 2,500,000
25 (1892) - 年五十二治明 - 3,054,307
26 (1893) - 年六十二治明 - 3,445,000
27 (1894) - 年七十二治明 - 4,500,000
28 (1895) - 年八十二治明 - 7,000,000
29 (1896) - 年九十二治明 - 2,599,340
30 (1897) - 年十三治明 - 7,516,448
31 (1898) - 年一十三治明 - 17,984,212
32 (1899) - 年二十三治明 - 15,000,000
33 (1900) - 年三十三治明 - 800,000
34 (1901) - 年四十三治明 - 500,000
37 (1904) - 年七十三治明 - 5,250,000
38 (1905) - 年八十三治明 - 8,444,930
Additional information

The 20 sen denomination was caught in an awkward position throughout the Meiji monetary reforms — too large for everyday small transactions, too small for significant commerce. Production ran sporadically across the series' three-decade span, with several years seeing no output at all as the government recalibrated silver coin demand against the competing 10 and 50 sen pieces. Japan's adoption of the gold standard in 1897 effectively demoted the entire silver sen series to subsidiary coinage, and mintages after that point dropped sharply. The .800 fineness was set deliberately below pure silver to discourage melting.

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