4 Monme 'Akita Fūgin'

Kubota Domain (modern Akita Prefecture) issued this silver piece under the broad sanction of the Tokugawa shogunate's permission for han to strike emergency coinage as the national monetary system buckled under the pressure of forced trade concessions to Western powers after 1858. The "Fūgin" designation — literally "local silver" — marks it as explicitly regional currency, accepted within domain borders but not guaranteed beyond them.

The .985 fineness is notably high for domain silver of this period, when most han were debasing their issues aggressively to cover fiscal shortfalls.