5 Sen

Japan's small-denomination treasury notes of this period were a direct response to the coin shortage that developed during World War One. Rising global demand for metals, particularly nickel and copper, made it economically irrational to strike low-value coins, so the government turned to paper scrip for denominations that had previously existed only in metal.

P#26 belongs to a short-lived series that was withdrawn relatively quickly once postwar metal supplies stabilized. These circulated hard in daily transactions — rice sellers, street vendors, small change — and surviving examples without heavy soiling or tears are genuinely uncommon for that reason.