Japanese Samurai Money, Small Gold and Silver Bars from the Meiji Era

I just got these in the mail today here in South Korea. Does anyone else collect these?

Small gold and silver bars from Japan, the money during the samurai era of Japan.


From several different eras, Ansei, Meiji, etc.
All from around 1850. More than 100 years old.

 

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I have seen some like these at coin shows. always wanted to get some, but know nothing about them or their values. what is the purity of silver and gold on these ???

 

The Ichibuban (一分判) could be either made of silver or gold, in which case it was a quarter of a Koban. The gold Ichibuban of 1714 (佐渡一分判金) had a weight of 4.5 g, with 85.6% of gold and 14.2% of silver. The silver Ichibuban from 1837 to 1854 (Tenpō Ichibugin, 天保一分銀, "Old Ichibuban") weighed 8.66 g, with an alloy of 0.21% gold and 98.86% silver.[4]

Nishuban and Isshuban[edit]
There were then Nishuban (二朱判) and Isshuban (一朱判) small denominations of silver or gold, before getting to the Mon or Sen bronze coins.

From 1853 to 1865, the silver Isshuban (Kaei Isshugin, 嘉永一朱銀) weighed 1.88 g, with an alloy of 1.7% gold, 98.7% silver and 1.12% copper.[4]

I have mostly Nishuban as gold bars in the pictures but the above passage does not talk about their gold content. I assume it is similar to the gold Ichibuban. I know it is a mixture of gold and silver.

 

The values you can check on Ebay or Vcoins. I ordered these myself in Japanese straight from a coin shop in Japan. 誰か日本語が話せる方も居るでしょうか？ The quality is way better than what you usually find on Ebay.

 

do some of the silver ones have chop marks ?

 

I have Ichibu Gin(larger silver ones), Isshu Gin(smaller silver ones), Nishu Kin (smaller gold) and Nichibu Kin(larger gold ones) and one

 

chop marks?

 

some of the silver ones I have seen looks like they had some japanese characters punch on them.

 

look on the bottom in the dark grey area of this ebay 1. it looks like it was punch on there. link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1853-1865-J...434736?hash=item51f5843af0:g:zXEAAOSw4CFY0eJd

 

Oh yea they all have characters on them. I will post some close ups.

 

those are upside down...sorry

 

Some silver ones-Ichibu Gin
again upside down and sideways...

 

And the small silver ones-Isshu Gin

 

sorry still don't know what you mean. Hope the pictures help~

 

A few more
again upside down...sorry don't know what's up with that

 

I like the gold ones too.

 

I would be a little concerned about how all of these are stored in square holders which permit free movement inside because of the potential for damage. I know that envelopes are the same, but I would think that they would be more forgiving than stapled 2x2s

 

I have a medium sized silver. I was told it was called a bu. Mine has the kanji stamped into, making it looked recessed or incused into the metal. Yours look completely different from any I have seen

 

As you can see in the pictures, none of the coins/bars are able to touch the cardboard. The plastic is tight enough that they can not touch it. I have 2x2 archival plastic flips but will probably leave them as is how they came from the coin shop in Japan. They are very well packaged/labeled imo.

 

These are very common types, 天保一分銀, Tenpo Ichibu Gin, and so on. Post a picture of yours~~^^