500 Mon

Han-issued scrip of this period circulated within strictly defined geographic limits — a note from one domain was often worthless across the border, deliberately so. The hundreds of feudal domains (han) that issued their own paper currency throughout the Edo period created a monetary patchwork that the Tokugawa shogunate tolerated rather than controlled, as long as silver and gold coinage remained the national standard.

The mon denomination places this firmly in the copper-equivalent tier, used for everyday transactions well below the silver momme range. Without confirmed attribution to a specific han, the official seal is the only authenticating feature linking it to a sanctioned issuer rather than one of the period's many fraudulent imitations.