1 Silver Monme private issue, Oono-gumi

Private silver-denominated paper scrip of this type emerged in Japan during the chaotic opening years of the Meiji period, when the new government had not yet consolidated monetary authority and merchant houses — gumi — continued issuing their own exchange notes backed by commodity silver, as Edo-period practice had long permitted. Oono-gumi was among the merchant syndicates operating in this gap, effectively running a parallel credit system until national currency reforms pushed such instruments out of legitimacy by the early 1870s.

The monme denomination is itself a relic — a traditional weight unit for silver, already obsolete as a formal monetary measure by the time this note was printed.