Hello Silver & Gold stackers! Another week and I have a few more interesting Japanese coins for you!

As last week, there is no silver in these. But I think the numismatists in the group might enjoy them. The coins in question are 1 sen coins from 1919, 1923, and 1936.

I'll give some basic coin stats, then we'll look at both sides, and then I'll give some more general info!

Sound fun? Let's go!

Stats

Some basic coin stats for you. Numista.com gives slightly different measures for these, but it's close enough for the differences to be measuring error.

• Weight: 3.75 g
• Diameter: 23 mm
• Thickness: 1 mm
• Edge: smooth

Like I said, no silver. 😞 They are all bronze.

Let's look at the coins a little more.

Obverse

A Paulownia Flower Seal (Government Seal of Japan) and the date below. The dates are 大正八 (taisho 8, 1919), 大正十二 (taisho 12, 1923), and 昭和十一 (showa 11, 1936). The text at the top says "Great Japan" (大日本, dai nippon).

It seems like this design was considered quite liberal and made the right wing pretty angry. Despite that, the design didn't change until after 1938. Evidently they were too busy taking over the government and killing everyone who opposed them to trouble themselves with the coinage, at least at first.

I don't know about any liberal implications, beyond perhaps being a reminder of a more democratic government than the one that was forming, but the Paulownia flower is pretty important in Japan historically. It was long beloved in the poetry world due to its leaves growing in patterns of 5-7-5 which reminded of the common pattern used in tanka and later haiku. It was first used for a symbol by the imperial family. Later Hideyoshi, the warlord who united Japan in the late 16th century adopted it. Then after the Meiji Restoration, the new Japanese government took the symbol as the seal of the Japanese government.

Reverse

Here we simply have the value of the coins written in kanji surrounded by a fairly nice floral design. There are flowers at the top and bottom, but I don't think they are meaningful, just part of the design.

The value is 一銭, ichi sen, "1 sen".

About

When Japan moved from the samurai military government to a modern one in 1868, they set the yen to be equal to the dollar and the sen equal to the cent, and let's remember this was back in the time when a cent was a decent amount of money. A few sen would buy all the food and daily supplies needed.

By the time of the last of these coins, the 1936 one, inflation was starting to creep in. Japan was still enjoying the high life in a matter of speaking and had not yet been destroyed from the war, but was already suffering shortages despite her empire.

As the value dropped, the coins kept shrinking and switching to cheaper materials. These bronze coins soon gave way to brass and then aluminum and then a tin and zinc mixture. Versions made of porcelain were produced in the final months of the war but never issued.

Needless to say, after the war inflation really took hold and these 1 sen coins soon because completely worthless except for collectors.

Overall

All in all, a nice coin to have. No silver, but a nice collectable.

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.