1 yen note

While one yen notes issued by the Bank of Japan remain legal tender today, they are worth much more in the collector's market.

[1] Meiji Tsuho notes were designed by Edoardo Chiossone sometime in 1870 while he was working for Dondorf Naumann on behalf of the National Bank of the Kingdom of Italy.

[2] The process of making Chiossone's proposed design a reality started with the establishment of the "Imperial Printing Bureau of Japan" in 1871 (4th year of Meiji).

In order to produce the currency the Japanese government reached out to Dondorf and Naumann to gain access to Western technology.

[3] All of these arrivals were purposely left incomplete due to security reasons, as the words "Meiji Tsuho" and the mark of the Minister of Finance were added by the Imperial Printing Bureau.

Woodblock printing was eventually employed to save hundreds of people the work of handwriting the characters "Meiji Tsuho" on each individual note.

[5][6] Eventually enough Western technology was brought over to Japan as the Japanese government produced some one yen Meiji Tsūhō notes domestically.

[9] During this time legal tender Meiji Tsuho one yen notes had issues with paper quality, and were circulating with counterfeits.

The obverse features samurai Nonoka Okumura (上毛野田道), a warship, and bank seals, while the reverse depicts a Mongol invasion.

[22] In July 1877 then prime minister Ōkuma Shigenobu realized that keeping Japan on a gold standard was pointless given the low price of silver.

All of the paper money in circulation was to be retired in favor of either silver coinage or newly printed Bank of Japan notes.

[24][34] During the early 1880s, then prime minister Matsukata Masayoshi was dealing with a serious inflation problem caused by an abundance of circulating devalued currency.

On June 27, 1882 Masayoshi suspended the issuance of inconvertible National Bank, and government issued notes to remedy the situation.

[39][40] Daikokuten is featured on the obverse with the inscription NIPPON GINKO Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand One Yen in Silver (此券引きかへ尓銀貨壹圓相渡可申候也).

Security features include a character watermark that reads "Bank of Japan Note" when held up to a light source.

The ink used was mixed with white lead as a pigment which caused the notes to turn black when they reacted with hydrogen sulfide in hot spring areas.

Modified one yen notes are now officially referred to as former convertible banknotes (旧兌換銀行券) in relation to events that occurred since their release.

[45] With this legendary figure are inscriptions in three circles that reference the convertible wording, the Dajo-kwan Notification of 1884 (year 17 of Meiji), and counterfeit penalties.

[45] The reverse side of the notes meanwhile feature a contemporary one yen silver coin with the convertible wording written in English.

[45] Security features include paulownia watermarks, and the words "Silver Standard One Yen Bill" when held up to a light source.

Japan officially switched to this adopted gold standard on October 1, 1897 (year 30) and all of the silver one yen coins were demonetized.

[49] The effects of the war caused a silver subsidiary coin shortage which prompted the issuance of fractional currency in denominations of 10, 20, and 50 sen notes.

Modified convertible one yen banknotes were ultimately suspended from issuance (de jure) on October 1, 1958 (year 33 of Shōwa).

[51] This act empowered the Bank of Japan to release nonconvertible notes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, and eventually 100 yen as fiat currency.

Overall, the issuance of fiat currency was strongly criticized by the public as the Japanese government abandoned its promise to convert paper money to gold.

This series was eventually suspended from issuance (de jure) on October 1, 1958 (year 33) when the amount of coins in circulation became sustainable.

[39][62] To make matters worse, there were quality differences depending on where the notes were printed and produced which helped forgery to spread.

[64] The value of any given banknote is determined by survivability rate and condition as collectors in general prefer original notes with bright rich coloring.

In order to pay for this event a large amount of banknotes were printed and released into circulation as a way to ease the economic situation.

This wound up having a negative effect in the form of rampant inflation which caused National banknotes to be actively collected by officials.