Catalog
3 Silver Monme private issue, Oono-gumi
| Issuer | Oono-gumi (Kaga Domain) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress in black with red stamp; at the upper register, a full-length vignette of Ebisu, the god of fishermen, shown in three-quarter view facing half-left, raising a fishing rod with his right hand and drawing the line with his left. An auspicious motif occupies the lower register. Vertical column inscriptions in classical Chinese characters run alongside the central field, denoting the denomination and nature of the instrument. |
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| Obverse lettering | 銀 三 匁 分 代諸 銀物 預品 切農 手商 (Translation: Three monme of silver Various things and goods charge a silver deposit Agriculture and commerce stamp) |
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Oono-gumi was a merchant consortium operating under the authority of Kaga Domain — one of the wealthiest han outside Tokugawa direct control — and issued silver-denominated scrip to facilitate trade in the domain's extensive commercial networks. By 1869, the Meiji government had already begun the process of abolishing domain currencies, making this issue a creature of a dying monetary order. Notes like this were redeemable in silver monme, the traditional weight-based unit, even as reformers in Tokyo were pushing toward a decimal yen system that would formally arrive three years later.
Private merchant-house issues from Kaga are considerably less documented than official han札 (hansatsu), and attribution to specific gumi can be difficult to verify from surviving records.