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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 5174, member: 57463&quot;]Bill Henderson brought up Japanese coins in the thread, &quot;Is it all European?&quot; I confess that I am not an active collector of Japanese (or Asian) numismata.&nbsp; However, I have some appreciation for the culture, having worked for two Japanese companies (Kawasaki and Honda).&nbsp; I wrote a couple of articles about Japanese coins and Japanese paper and also about Chinese coins. So, I have some general awareness.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the &quot;Hammered&quot; topic, the point was made that designs were borrowed among kingdoms.&nbsp; In numismatics we see these historic trends.&nbsp; The graceful &quot;Young Hera&quot; popular among many Greek cities of the 300s and 200s BCE were copied or adapted from the Arethusa motif of Syracuse.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, when looking at Japanese history, you see these parallels.&nbsp; Some of them are interesting because the Japanese experienced the same processes as other cultures.&nbsp; The fact that they were isolated underscores that inflation, counterfeiting, etc., arise spontaneously perhaps as a matter of &quot;natural law.&quot;&nbsp; On the other hand, there were clear borrowings.</p><p><br /></p><p>Japanese bronze coins, the Kanei Tsuho, are direct from China.&nbsp; When Japan modernized in the late 1800s, their silver coins were on the international &quot;crown&quot; or 8-reales standard, about the same size and composition as large US, Mexican, and British coins of the time, within some arbitrary range for weight and fineness.&nbsp; Then, Japan went off its bimetallic standard and adopted the gold standard.&nbsp; This was clearly a matter of adjusting the internal economy to the wider world.</p><p><br /></p><p>With Japanese paper, you have these early receipts of the 1600s.&nbsp; At first, they were the wrappers of rolls of silver coins, but the paper soon acquired a reality of its own.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s about all I know at that level.</p><p><br /></p><p>Take it away, Bill![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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