1 Monme Nagasawa

Hansatsu — the class of notes to which this piece belongs — were issued by domain authorities, merchant guilds, or wealthy financiers operating under Tokugawa-period license. They circulated strictly within defined geographic boundaries, often a single han or a specific trade route, and were redeemable against commodities rather than specie. The monme denomination ties this note to silver-weight accounting, the dominant commercial unit in western Japan throughout the Edo period.

Nagasawa issues of this type are poorly documented in Western reference literature. The 1730 date places it squarely in a period of relative monetary stability before the Tanuma-era currency experiments of the 1770s began to destabilize hansatsu confidence.