Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Bu 'Enbukin'
| Issuer | Japan |
|---|---|
| Year | 1589 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Hammered |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Irregular round hammered gold flan bearing a symmetrical arrangement of six stylized foliate or floral motifs in high relief, disposed around the field in an orderly pattern. The central and surrounding devices display intricately worked, lobed leaf forms rendered in the plastic, raised style characteristic of late Sengoku-period Japanese gold coinage. A continuous border of raised beads encircles the entire field, forming a granular rim typical of Enbukin-type bu coins. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Enbukin (鉛分金) takes its name from a misreading corrected by later scholars — "en" referring to the elongated, hammered form produced under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's consolidation of gold coinage in the late Sengoku period. Hideyoshi's currency reforms were as much political as economic: standardizing gold denominations was a direct assertion of central authority over the regional daimyo who had previously issued their own coinage with little oversight.
The .843 fineness reflects a transitional alloy regime, slightly below the purity that would become standard under early Tokugawa issues.