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Message:: [QUOTE="Sullykerry2, post: 3646572, member: 57121"]When I wrote my undergraduate thesis at college I focused on Japanese monetary history. (That was well before I started collecting coins).  The rin was only in existence from 1873 to 1884.  There was a shortage of "new" currency following the end of the Shogunate (Bakufu) in 1868.  The rin was a transitional currency for the masses until the Bank of Japan was established in 1882.  The new Meiji government gave the Bank of Japan (BOJ) the sole power to control the issuance of currency. In 1888 the other low denomination coin, the 1/2 sen, an all copper coin was discontinued. For a brief period after WWI (Japan was an allied nation) the BoJ minted a 5 rin Bronze coin (Taisho 5-8) or 1916-1919.  That concluded the brief history of the rin. For those of you who can read Chinese or Japanese "kanji" the character for "rin" includes the Chinese character or "ji" for homeland or village - "sato" in Japanese.  I often find these relationships fascinating in Asian currencies.[/QUOTE]