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!
100 Yen
| Issuer | Japanese Government (Dajokan) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1872 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Dondorf & Naumann, Frankfurt, Germany (1850-1932) |
| Designer(s) | 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 | Vertical-format intaglio note printed in black on a blue underprint, arranged in strict bilateral symmetry; confronted phoenix and dragon vignettes flank a central vertical column of Japanese text stating the denomination and issuing authority. A green Ministry of Finance seal is positioned at upper left, with the kanji numeral '百' (one hundred) occupying each corner of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Vertical-format letterpress design in red, structured within a symmetrical guilloche framework; black and blue Ministry of Finance seals are centrally placed flanking the denomination numeral, while the serial number rendered in Japanese characters is repeated at both the top and bottom margins. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Japan's Meiji government had no domestic capacity for intaglio banknote printing in 1872, so the Dajokan contracted Dondorf & Naumann in Frankfurt — a firm better known at the time for playing cards and securities. Chiossone, an Italian engraver then working in Genoa, was commissioned for the design work before he later relocated to Japan and took a permanent post at the Finance Ministry's printing bureau, where he would spend the rest of his life.
The entire series had to be shipped from Germany, creating obvious logistical vulnerability for a nation trying to assert monetary independence. Frankfurt-printed Japanese government notes of this issue are among the earliest examples of Meiji paper currency and predate the establishment of the Bank of Japan by a decade.