Bitasen (debased cast copies)
15th–16th century ・ copper ・ 15th century ・ Private casting across Japan (cast from copies)
At the end of the Muromachi period, when the supply of imported coin ran thin, people at Sakai and Hakata and Kamakura cast coin by pressing genuine pieces into sand moulds. With every copying the diameter shrank by 0.4 millimetres and the characters blurred. At the shop front people flicked them with a finger to hear the ring, and held them to the light to sort them one by one. Erizeni, the daily haggling over which coin to take, begins with this piece.