Tosa Domain banknotes 50 Monme issued in 1868 Japan Old Banknote Edo Period

This bill was issued by the Tosa Clan around 1868.
It is marked “50 monme” on the front.
Monme” is a unit of weight.
One monme is 3.75 grams of silver.

“Hansatsu(Domain bills)” are banknotes issued independently by the “domains” that were self-governing in the Edo period, and were issued by 125 domains during the Edo period.

The Edo period,the Tokugawa shogunate established a monetary system in which gold, silver, and coins were the basic currencies. 

These coins were circulated in large cities such as Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto and their surrounding areas. 

However, other domains had little means of earning the shogunate’s currency other than selling rice and specialty products(such as bonito in the Tosa domain) in Osaka and Edo. 

Therefore, it was not easy to secure enough currency to proceed with transactions. 

In particular, domains with weak financial conditions, such as domains with little annual rice tax or with no cash income other than rice, were at risk of running into financial difficulties due to natural disasters, famine, or currency shortages due to economic development. 

In order to improve this situation, with the permission of the Tokugawa shogunate, the issuance of “Hansatsu” began.

Hansatsu were local currencies that circulated in the territory of the “domain” in which they were issued, and were used instead of the coins made by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Each “domain” has a different type, and it is said that there are currently about 1,700 species.

In the Tosa domain, the first domain banknotes were issued on New Year’s Day in 1663 (Kanbun 3) during the reign of Kaneyama Nonaka. 

However, the han bills themselves were vulnerable to wind and rain and were not valid for merchants outside the domain, so they were abolished after eight months.

The next han banknote was issued in November 1702 (Genroku 15). It was originally planned to be in circulation for 10 years.

In the end, these han bills could not be used outside the domain, and the people of the domain had little understanding of them, so the Edo shogunate issued an order to each domain to suspend their validity, and they were abolished in August 1707.

Afterwards, the suspension of use was lifted in 1730, but the Tosa domain suspended its publication until the end of the Edo period. 

It’s not that there was no currency until then. Instead, credit notes were issued for each region. 

After the Meiji Restoration, the burden of Gulf defense costs and political activity costs for the domain increased, leading to an increase in fiscal spending.

For this reason, five types of gold bills were issued in October 1866: 1 minute, 2 minute, 1 ryo, 2 ryo, and 5 ryo. 


Initially, distribution was scheduled for three years.

In fact, the period was extended and about 30 types of domain banknotes, including gold and silver banknotes, were issued.

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