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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Clinker, post: 165457, member: 6229&quot;]You probably know about the population explosion of Japan about the time World War I ended. At the same time Japan was running out of raw materials needed for their industrial goals and for the arms and equipment needed to keep their military might intact.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You, also, probably know about Japan&#039;s military occupation of China. Because of their need for more land room (living space) and those raw materials, the Japanese heirarchy began planning the conquest of the Adriatic and South Sea countries. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>One of those countries was Manchuria.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Many wealthy Japanese had large size investments in towns and cities throughout Manchuria. On a contrived incident, Japan moved it&#039;s troops into Manchuria and quickly took control. They changed the name to Manchoukuo and declared it a separate entity. To maintain control of this vast area, they brought in a former ruler of Manchuria and set him up as a puppet ruler. Over the next few years they annexed some of the nearby territories and soon controlled everything North of the Great Wall. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As they controlled more and more of China including it&#039;s most important ports, they discovered the need to produce currency and coinage to keep the economy of the occupied area working. The Central Bank of Japan was set up as the controlling bank of all banks and their branches in the occupied territory.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>With Japan&#039;s attention turned to it&#039;s conflict with the United States of America, during 1944 and 1945 a shortage of metal needed to strike coins occured in Manchoukuo.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>At first aluminum coins were struck, but even that metal became scarce and the Japanese occupiers had to come up with an alternative which resulted in five of the most unusual coins ever struck. In late &#039;44 they created a compressed fiber coin. 5-Fen pieces were minted in a red version of this fiber. In early &#039;45 Fen and Five-Fen pieces were struck in the red fiber. Later in &#039;45, Fen and 5-Fen pieces were struck in a brown fiber.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You can look these unusual coins up in the Krause-Mishler 2007 World Coins - 1901 through 2000 under China/Japanese Puppet States.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Clinker</p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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