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4 Mon 'Bunkyūeihō' Bosen, copper alloy, Simplified Hō, SAIKAKU
| Issuer | Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863-1868 |
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| Value | 4 Mon |
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| Obverse description | Four Chinese characters arranged in cruciform reading order around a central square hole, forming the legend 文久永宝 (Bunkyūeihō), meaning 'Eternal Treasure of the Bunkyū era.' The top character is rendered in a simplified cursive (草書) script form, a distinguishing feature of this Simplified Hō (簡略宝) variety. The characters are cast in relief against a plain field, with the square central perforation framed by a raised inner rim. The overall calligraphic style and casting quality identify this piece as a 細郭銅母銭 (Saikaku dō bosen), a fine-rim copper master coin used for producing circulation dies. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese (Kanji) |
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| Additional information |
The Bunkyū Eiraku Tsūhō four-mon piece was authorized in 1863 as Japan's monetary system groaned under the combined pressures of forced treaty ports, a collapsing Tokugawa administration, and rampant coin counterfeiting that had made lighter unofficial cast pieces nearly indistinguishable from official ones. The Saikaku — "west mint" — designation points to the Osaka side of production, distinguishing output from the Edo mints during a period when centralized authority over coinage was fragmenting rapidly.
The simplified Hō character variant exists because engravers at different furnace operations worked from copied rather than standardized models. By 1868 the Meiji government had inherited the series mid-run.