Issues facing the Japanese government at the time included wanting to adopt the gold standard, and competing against the Mexican dollar for use in foreign trade.

Between 2011 and 2013 and since 2016, production of the coin was confined to mint sets due to lack of demand caused by increased usage of electronic money.

[2] No silver one yen coins were struck in 1873 as the year was devoted to turning out gold pieces domestically.

It was reported in the Quarterly Journal of Economics that by 1876 more gold coins were exported to foreign countries than for use domestically.

[9][a] Japan ultimately chose to go with a bimetallic standard in 1878, which gave the one yen silver coin legal tender status throughout the country.

[6][12] From 1878 to 1897, large amounts of one yen coins were struck as the declining price of silver increased their demand.

The fluctuations over the price of silver eventually made trade with Europe and the United States unreliable.

[12] After years of advisement, the Japanese government officially switched back to the gold standard on October 1, 1897 as a solution to the trading problem.

[17] The production of silver one yen coins eventually ended in 1914 during the 3rd year of Emperor Taishō's reign.

[18] The obverse of these brass coins features a numeral "1" with "State of Japan" above, and the date below, while the reverse reads "One Yen" with a floral pattern below it.

The reverse side of the coin has a figure "1" in a circle that represents one yen; below the digit is the year of issue which is written in kanji.

By the turn of the century other factors such as rising metal costs and increasing usage of electronic money began to come into play.

[24] In 2009, unsuccessful measures that included raising money from the private sector were tried in order to lower the cost.

[28] In the following year, more cashless transactions caused the ministry to stop issuing new one yen coins for circulation again.

[30][31] On February 25, 2021 CDP leader Kenta Izumi proposed to abolish 1 and 5-yen coins due to the fee involved with depositing them at banks.

Izumi's issue was that a fee of 550 yen is incurred at most major banks for deposits involving 101 coins or more.

[32] Taro Aso, who was at the time the Minister of Finance pushed back on the notion stating "we have no plans to abolish it immediately" as there is a demand for small value transactions.

[44] One-yen gold coins dated 1880 (year 13) were never intended for circulation as they were part of presentation sets.

Coins dated 1870 (year 3 of Meiji) were struck in 1871 and feature at least 3 varieties when it comes to strokes in the old character for yen (圓).

According to Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, Meiji era one-yen silver coins are "usually well struck with sharp details".

[47] Dates targeted include 1870 (year 3), which is on NGC's top 25 list of most commonly found counterfeited world coins.