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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 28603, member: 669&quot;]I have often wondered whether any country other than Japan created a whole set of new denominations by passing a law.&nbsp; (They did it twice!)</p><p><br /></p><p>At the beginning of the 17th Century the Tokugawas, a family of warlords, took complete control of the Japanese government.&nbsp; Among other things, Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun, standardized coinage for the entire country, establishing the ryo as the basic unit, with subsidiary bu, shu and mon denominations.&nbsp; The cash coins which had been circulating in Japan for centuries had mon and 4 mon values.&nbsp; 1 ryo was equal to 4 bu, 16 shu, and 4,000 mon.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Modern Japanese coinage dates to the third year of the Meiji Emperor&#039;s reign, following the overthrow of the Tokugawas, and restoration of the primacy of the Emperor, as a virtual demi-god.&nbsp; The ryo and its progeny met the same fate as their originators when the New Coinage Act was adopted, creating the yen, sen (1/100th yen) and rin (1/10th sen).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;En&quot;, which is how the Japanese pronounce the denomination, literally means &quot;round&quot;, and was adopted to distinguish the new western-style coinage from the rectangular and oval coins previously circulating.</p><p><br /></p><p>A more detailed explanation of those events, including English translations of the key Japanese coinage acts, can be found in <i>Modern Japanese Coinage</i> by Cummings.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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