The obverse of the coin depicts the Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in, a Buddhist temple in Uji, Kyoto prefecture, with the kanji for "Japan" and "Ten Yen".

[2] The origin of mintage is not clear as there are conflicting reports stating that ten yen coins were either minted in San Francisco, or in Japan the prior year.

During this lapse non circulating ten yen gold coins were made in two non-consecutive years for two different reasons.

The first occasion occurred in 1880 when ten yen gold proof coins were struck for exclusive use in presentation sets that were given away as gifts to foreign diplomats.

[10][11] The second and final instance involved the World's Columbian Exposition in 1892 where several newly minted coins were put on display.

[12] When Japan went back on the gold standard in 1897, new ten yen coins were set by law to weigh 8.3g and have a diameter of 21.2mm.

[a] These new lighter and smaller coins were given a new design which features a sunburst superimposed on the sacred mirror on the obverse, and the value within a wreath on the reverse.

[17] Gold ten yen coins of the second design (1897 to 1910) mostly remained in government vaults by the time mintage ceased for good in 1910.

The coins that had been minted during those thirteen years continued to back up gold certificates until World War I due to inflation.

[22] The first ten yen coins made after World War II were authorized by law on March 2, 1950, by prime minister Shigeru Yoshida.

The decision to melt the coins came as the Korean War had driven nickel prices to about 4.1 million yen per ton.

[31] The design which is used today features Phoenix Hall of Byōdō-in on the obverse, and Bay laurel leaves on the reverse.

The Japanese government held a series of auctions from 2005 through 2007 which included previously unreported rare coins in denominations of 5, 10 and 20 Yen.

[40] Modifications to the ten yen coin were made in 1986 which show slight differences in the appearance of Byodoin Phoenix Hall.