Until the Meiji era of 1867-1912, Japanese coinage traded not on denominations, but more on the weight and merits of the individual coin ~ definately not an easy form of trading!

This coin is a nichi bu gin, a silver coin which was a weight called a "Bu" and was manufactured ca. 1859-1868.

This coin measures approximately 15mm x 21mm x 2.5mm.

Very nice coin.



MY collection: http://www.omnicoin.com/?collection=echizento

The Chinese characters on the Japanese money as "1 cent silver". Direct translation on the first pic. Chinese characters in Japanese were know as Kanji which originally borrowed from Han Dynasty hanzi. I believe there is still a denomination but the question is why did the Japanese make them into a rectangular shape. Is it for better handling. The ancient Chinese copper coins with hole makes them easier to handle by stringing them together but these coins have a problem because they gets thinner when circulated and tends to crack more easily due to the square hole in the centre of the coins. cheers

The Japanese Mon coins, from 1 Mon to the oblong shaped 100 Mon did have holes in the centre. The silver and gold money did not, and actually there is an amazing amount of variety with the gold and silver, ranging from Mameita "Bean" shaped Gin(silver) to the rectangular Gin coins, and the rectangular Bu(gold) and larger Koban gold pieces.

Japanese coinage is amazingly fascinating, and overlooked by Western collectors in my opinion. When Japan decimalised and modernised it's coinage beginning in 1870, it marked a huge jump forward for what must have been a very challenging means of exchange prior to the recoinage. Many countries around the world modernised their coinages gradually over decades, Japan basically jumped forward by several centuries.

Scottishmoney, are you planning to get an oban anytime soon?

There is a reason why these "coins" aren't circular as there is something called a shaker board which can hold about 100 of these at once for easy counting and transportation.

An example is shown here: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...em=120072053401

The irony about Meiji era coins is that that is one of the rare times that English was used on coinages. You don't see any English text unless it's on modern Japanese commamorative coins.

Btw, it should be "ichi bu gin" instead of "nichi bu gin"

I have been interested in the Obans, but often times they are either missing the ink brush marks and or have been re-scripted at a later date in an effort to increase the value of the piece. In this sense they are similar to the late 19th century Korean coins that had the cloisonne in the centre, often times it popped out and then was replaced much later in an effort to bring back the value of the piece.

I have seen Goryobans (5 Oban) which had all of the brush calligraphy completely worn or chemically removed on eBay.

I have always thought the same thing too. I was almost stictly a US coin guy untill i looked into Japanese stuff.

Love the coin!

Wait till you get into the Korean protectrate era coins

http://www.hwadong.com/auction/offline/off...d_id=100013359#

and this:



Url from here: http://www.hwadong.com/auction/offline/off...od_id=100015224

Heh........u could send me one of those for my birthday if you would like Hisa.