Catalog
300 Mon
| Issuer | Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mon (683-1953) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | This tall, narrow hansatsu-style local note is printed in black ink on aged mulberry paper, with a dense decorative border of interlocking key-fret (sayagata) patterns framing the entire field. At the upper portion, a vignette of two court or deity figures is rendered in a woodblock print style, flanked by stylized phoenix or crane motifs. The central area carries the denomination inscription in bold kanji characters within a plain rectangular panel, below which a lower register displays a tightly ruled grid cartouche, likely serving as an issuer or control block. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 英 彦 ? ? ? |
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| Comments |
The extreme aspect ratio of this note — nearly four times as long as it is wide — is not accidental. Hansatsu, the class of feudal domain currency to which most Japanese mon-denomination notes belong, were deliberately issued in narrow strip format to distinguish them visually and physically from central Tokugawa coinage and from notes issued by other domains. Acceptance was strictly local; a 300 mon note from one han was worthless paper thirty kilometers away.
The mon itself was already an archaic unit by the time many of these notes circulated, being phased out entirely with the Meiji monetary reforms of 1871.