Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Yen
| Issuer | Japanese Government (Dajō-kan) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Edoardo Chiossone |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Black intaglio on brown underprint, vertical format with a rigorously symmetrical composition. Two confronted phoenixes and dragons flank a central column of Japanese text reading the denomination and issuer, with the numeral '五' (five) repeated at each corner. A blue Ministry of Finance seal is positioned at upper left, anchoring the official authority of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 五 五 省蔵大府政本日大 金 五 圓 明 治 通 宝 五 五 (Translation: Five (x2) Great Japanese Government Ministry of Finance Five gold yen Currency of Meiji Five (x2)) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Japan's first centrally issued government paper currency arrived from Frankfurt at a moment when the Meiji administration had no domestic printing capability whatsoever. Dondorf & Naumann, better known for their playing cards and chromolithography work, were an unusual choice — the contracts went to German firms largely because British and American printers had already declined or quoted prohibitively. Chiossone, the Genoese engraver, had been hired through the Frankfurt connection and would later relocate to Japan permanently, eventually establishing the printing bureau in Tokyo that made foreign contracts unnecessary.
The series as a whole is notorious for sophisticated counterfeiting almost immediately after release, which accelerated the government's push toward domestic production.