Kan'ei Tsūhō (Ko-Kan'ei, Shiba issue)
AD 1636– ・ copper ・ 17th century ・ Edo, the Shiba Aminawate coin mint
Casting began at Edo and at Sakamoto in Ōmi in the thirteenth year of Kan'ei, in the time of the third shogun Iemitsu. It was the first coin made in Japan in 678 years, counting from the Kengen Taihō. Those cast at Aminawate in Shiba are called Shiba-sen, and are told apart by their cursive-style strokes. The diameter is 2.5 cm, the weight about 1 monme. For the two hundred years and more that followed, ordinary life turned on this one piece.
Diameter 25mm