Catalog
5 Yen
| Issuer | Bank of Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
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| Currency | Yen (1871-date) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 5YEN 券行銀本日 1726 五 日 圓 本 銀 行 五 (seals) 1726 5 (Translation: Bank of Japan note Five yen Bank of Japan) |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue-green on plain paper, the reverse presents a symmetrical design centred on the denomination characters 五圓 within a guilloche panel, flanked on each side by large ornate scroll-work vignettes. Numeral 5 appears at both the left and right margins, while a banner at the top carries the inscription 日本銀行券 (Bank of Japan Note) to the right and "5 Yen" to the left, surmounted by a small circular imperial emblem at centre top. |
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| Comments |
Japan's postwar currency situation in 1946 was chaotic. The government enacted the Emergency Financial Measures Ordinance in February of that year, freezing existing deposits and mandating the exchange of old notes for new ones — this 5 Yen was part of the flood of issues rushed out to meet that demand. Print quality across the series suffers noticeably as a result; the wartime degradation of Japanese printing infrastructure had not yet recovered.
At just over twelve million printed, this is not a rare note, but heavily circulated examples in collectible condition are harder to find than the mintage suggests — the postwar exchange program burned through paper quickly.