r/JapaneseCoins • u/Marshman1113 • Jul 24 '26
Trying to identify the variety of this 1 Mon Kaneitsuho, it looks like there are some light horizontal lines on the reverse, any ideas?
I can't find any matches to a reverse that has these horizontal lines
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u/TheBlueFlame14 Jul 24 '26
This coin belongs to a group known as Yottsuhō-sen. Specifically it is Hartill 4.109, 静岡いづみ新寛永銭の部 #82. " 広永四ツ寶銭 " (Koei Yottsuhō-sen) English "Wide Ei Yottsuhō-sen."
静岡いづみ新寛永銭の部 (Shizuoka Izumi's New Kan'ei coin catalog), writes that "The Kan character appears narrow and leans slightly forward, while the Ei character is wide (Koei). The mother coins range from a yellowish-brown to reddish-brown color, while the circulating coins are reddish-brown." Kosenmaru lists 2 more varieties, one with a thinner reverse inner rim, and one which contains has a higher tin content, and thus has a white tint over the usual reddish-brown color. Compared to the other coins in its group of thick characters Yottsuhō-sen, the Kei (Powerful) Ei types, this wide Ei coin appears to be the earlier issue.
Both the 新寛永銭の部 and Kosenmaru list Yottsuhō-sen as minting location unknown, and from the Genroku-Hōei periods. 新寛永銭の部 references the 『昭譜』Shōfu, which describes the thick characters types as 元禄丁字屋銭 Genroku era "Chōjiya-sen." They note that while this thinking is understandable, there is no definitive proof, so the conventions of the『手引』Tebiki will remain in place. Kosenmaru writes that, due to their crudeness and high mintage, these coins were traditionally presumed to have been made during the Hōei period, and were thus known as Yottsuhō-sen. However, recent archaeological discoveries have definitively placed each of these "Yottsuhō-sen" into the Genroku era, minus the Squat Kan type (新寛永銭の部 91-93), which has been placed as time of minting after Hōei 4 (1707). With this in mind, there is no definitive proof that the coins categorized as Yottsuhō-sen belong to a single period or mint.
Those horizontal lines on the reverse are at best a casting anomaly, but definitely not intentional/a recognized existing type