Finishing up posts on Series-E Japanese banknotes, including the 1000 Yen Banknote, the 2000 Yen Banknote (actually in Series-D) and the 5000 Yen Banknote, here is the largest current circulating banknote in Japan, the 10000 Yen note. Worth $91.07 US at this very moment, this bill has all of the security features of the 5000 Yen note. 日本銀行券 (Nipponginkōken) - Bank of Japan banknote 壱万円 (ichi man'en) - 10000 Yen (using the fancier "壱" Kanji instead of "一万円") 日本銀行 (Nipponginkō) - Bank of Japan 福沢諭吉 - Yukichi Fukuzawa, 19th century author, teacher, reformer and founder of Keio University 国立印刷局製造 (Kokuritsu insatsu-kyoku seizō) - Manufactured by the National Bureau of Printing - this is very tiny printing on front bottom center The reverse features the Chinese phoenix from the Byodoin Temple All of the high-tech security features utilized by the Bank of Japan makes it fairly unlikely that one will come across a fake Japanese banknote. Here are a few safeguards. Once again, the watermark has incredible detail. Like the 5000 Yen banknote, this one also features a hologram placed on the note as a sticker. The image changes drastically with the angle of viewing. And finally, this note has 3 bars in its side watermark. The 5000 shows 2 bars and the 1000 a single bar. As expected, the note also contains a dizzying amount of microprinting, latent images, intaglio printing and extremely fine detail. The "L" shapes in extreme left and right bottom have texture to help the visually impaired distinguish the denominations. The notes also increase slightly in size as their value increases. Lastly, red seals on both front and back glow under UV light. Given all of these rigorous precautions, Japan finds extremely very few counterfeit bills in circulation. Similar to all Series-E bills, this one first appeared in 2004. Japan does not include explicit dates on their banknotes because of their short lifespans, so to differentiate between issues, they change the serial number color. For the 10000 Yen banknote, black serial numbers date from 2004 to 2011. Brown serial numbers date from 2011 onward. The pictured banknote has a brown serial number. Japan also announced that the designs on their banknotes will change beginning in 2024. These will feature more prominent Arabic numerals while de-emphasizing the Japanese Kanji, apparently to conform to an international display standard. Presumably, these will be Series-F bills. The new designs are shown in the link just above.
I don't collect these Japanese notes or know anything about them. They are very beautiful works of art. The detail is amazing. Thanks for sharing and the write up.
Thanks for sharing @ewomack , interesting information. How large are the notes compared to US currency ?
The 10000 yen is a little taller and a little wider. The 5000 and 1000 yen notes are the same height as the 10000 yen, but each a little narrower, with the 1000 yen note being a little narrower than a US note. They fit inside a tri-fold US wallet, but stick out the top of a bi-fold wallet.
One of my regrets was not keeping examples of the currency. In fact, after I got home I found a 10,000 and 5,000 note I'd stuck in my JNDA and foolishly sent them to someone to buy me something and mail it. Wish I'd kept the notes! I love on the 1000 yen note they feature Hideo Noguchi, who discovered syphilis, or if not syphilis itself, then part of the disease process. I don't see that happening in the US.
I love the Japanese currency. They are almost more valuable as art than currency. Before I retired, I use to travel a great deal in South America and Europe. Most of the currency I collected was put in a box. The coins I had were in a plastic bag the last time I saw it. A great deal of the coinage was silver. Oh, well! My wife has recently caught the bug after she saw my collection. She saves everything. She puts all of her coins in a jar and has me look at them. She has started collection cents/pennies that are still shining.
Here is the 10000 Yen note, the largest note in the series, next to a US $1 to give you an idea of the size difference. The notes get slightly smaller as the denominations decrease, but they never get as narrow as US currency.