Japan's new Meiji government moved fast to dismantle the monetary apparatus of the old Tokugawa order, and this 1869 issue was part of that first wave — the Dajokan-satsu and Minbusho-satsu notes issued to fund a state that had barely consolidated power. The Minbusho, the Civil Department, functioned briefly as a proto-treasury before being reorganized; notes bearing its name date to an extremely narrow administrative window. Gold-denominated in shu — a unit already archaic by the time of issue — the notes were pegged to a coinage system that was itself about to be swept away by the 1871 New Currency Act, which introduced the yen.
Redemption rates were contentious, and public confidence in Meiji paper was low in these early years. Many notes from this period were withdrawn and destroyed when the new decimal system took effect.
Japan's new Meiji government moved fast to dismantle the monetary apparatus of the old Tokugawa order, and this 1869 issue was part of that first wave — the Dajokan-satsu and Minbusho-satsu notes issued to fund a state that had barely consolidated power. The Minbusho, the Civil Department, functioned briefly as a proto-treasury before being reorganized; notes bearing its name date to an extremely narrow administrative window. Gold-denominated in shu — a unit already archaic by the time of issue — the notes were pegged to a coinage system that was itself about to be swept away by the 1871 New Currency Act, which introduced the yen.
Redemption rates were contentious, and public confidence in Meiji paper was low in these early years. Many notes from this period were withdrawn and destroyed when the new decimal system took effect.