Hi all! I was doing some tidying in my desk today, and ran across this piece that I acquired over a decade ago. I have tried researching it a few times over the years, to no avail. It is Japanese, and made of brass with what appears to be selective copper plating. It is 22mm in diameter. Any help in ID this piece would be greatly appreciated - thanks in advance
WOW. Never seen anything like it before. Found a couple of links straight away. https://en.auction-world.co/xpai/lot_25-371.html https://shop.ginzacoins.co.jp/aucti...]=42&status[0]=486&status[1]=478&item_index=1 Supposedly a military token. But it's dated 1887 and i do not know any war event with Japan that happened around that era. The only thing that comes to mind is a few rebellions that happened within the country but nothing that stands out of mind. The good news is, it's clearly very high in demand. Even at the lowest price, it seems to be around 200USD (!) Pretty neat
The Ginza listing seems to say "details unknown," but it does refer to it specifically as a token: "トークン(代用貨幣)." If Ginza Coin doesn't know much about it, that likely means its origins may remain murky at best. Yet another auction site: https://watanabecoin.shop-pro.jp/?pid=162051687 mentions "Canteen." Another line from that page reads "It is a token coin circulated in the Japanese military garrison facility." It is categorized under "Not Issued/Trial Coins/Military Coins." As for 1887, or Meiji 20, princess Shizuko died and prince Michihoto was born in that year. Emperor Meiji also received some foreign honors that same year, but I don't know why any of these events would lead to the creation of a token, unless the year ends up arbitrary? Or maybe it was just a celebration of the 20th year of his reign? "IKEGAYA" appears to refer to a surname, not a place or anything else that I can find. I don't see the token in the 2020 JNDA, or 日本貨幣カタログ, which furthers the evidence for it being a non-government issued token.
There's just too many questions instead of answers. First question is who is Ikegaya. Why is this in English? Second is why Meiji 20 and this design. The problem i have is the ŕough design of the Japan emblem and the countermark S. Oddly enough, this countermark does belong to Osaka mint - for what it stands for, I don't know.
Many thanks to @gxseries and @ewomack for your responses! Its a solid start to begin poking around. Admittedly, Japanese material is pretty far outside of my remit - I only set this token aside as I liked it aesthetically
There is only one other possibility that I can think of. This could be a prototype for Korean coinage. There are two reasons for this: 1) The brass like planchet. This was never used in Japan but only for Korea An example as shown Problem is the weight and size is slightly different. 2) The countermark S. From my understanding, the letter "S" could be used to denote "s"ample. This happened with 5 chon coins struck in Osaka mint. The Korean coinage had a prototype issued in 1886 and Japanese mint engineers were contracted to be involved in official coinage. There are very very little literature with this and I am suspecting that there could be strong possibility of this. Perhaps Ikegami was the die engraver and he did a rough example to illustrate how these coins could look like. Thus this could another reason why there is no denomination - this was not known yet at that time.
Its an interesting thought, but I would be left to wonder why so many of these were produced (with them apparently coming to market with greater frequency than I would expect from a pattern). For context, Japan spent much of the 1880s building up its armed forces following the reforms of the late 1870s, and with the tensions relating to the Korean peninsula in the lead up to the first Sino-Japanese War, it is not inconceivable that such tokens were born out of some reform or another. I don't know about the Japanese context, but I do know that in other places, it was common for armies to have 'camp shops' in which troops could buy small luxuries / things that were not provided in their rations - these oftentimes were run with some degree of involvement of the commanding officer. I have also considered the composition, but a military or canteen token might also be struck in a distinct metal so as to avoid it entering general circulation. The marks are indeed puzzling, and I still cant wrap my head around the selective copper plating. One possible thought about Ikegami is that perhaps he was the commander under whose authority these tokens were issued? But then, why in latin characters? Either way, as it seems that little is actually known about these, I suspect that most conjecture will remain just that.
Looks like the auction above called it a "酒保銭" (canteen token) I looked up some similar Kamon Crests, but couldn't find an exact match. Omodaka Giri Government crest Kajinoha Giri Maruni Gosan Giri
Ok, I think I may have something..... Ikegaya in Japanese is written: 池ケ谷 It means "valley pond" or similar: 池 = ike = pond, 谷 = ya = valley. However, valley can be either "ya" or "tani" (the kanji can have more than one sound/pronunciation. For example "town" can be "cho" or "machi"). It means that there are other "readings" of the Kanji for Ikegaya, and in this case, it includes: Ikenotani, Iketani, Ikeya There was village area in the town of Oasa-cho, which is now part of Naruto City, Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku Island, called Ikenotani (or now called Oasacho Ikenotani). There were a number of villages adjacent to Ikenotani, all a part of Oasa-cho (Oasa Town).They were all villages in Meiji times, but they are now all a part of Oasa-cho, Naruto City. You can still see on the map a lot of rice fields, so in some ways, not much has changed. After the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration, the feudal Samurai system was dismantled. To replace this system, a city-town-village system was imposed, in year Meiji 22, 1887. I think that this could be an Ikenotani/Ikegaya village token used for currency/exchange in out-lying areas, possibly struck in Osaka. Osaka and Kobe are only about 50-60km from Naruto City port, and only 3-4 km at each end of Awaji Island to Kobe, so getting coins/tokens struck at Osaka Mint would have been practical. The Romaji (English) characters may have been added to make it consistent with the currency of the day, which had English on them. And it may have been that the local village needed tokens for exchange, but perhaps they were not adopted, and were just experimental. There could also have been a military garrison in the area, for which the token was used.
