Koban (coin)

[2][3] Despite the existence of other gold and silver coins at the time, through a series of reforms the Bakufu managed to stabilize the koban to ryō 1:1 valuation by the end of the seventeenth century.

[3] Nowadays, gold-foil cardboard versions of koban are sold as Engimono (縁起物, talisman/lucky charm) at Shinto shrines.

The standard unit of measure was the koku, the amount of rice needed to feed one person for one year.

By the time of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's visit in 1853, counterfeit koban from previous eras were preferred by merchants to the newer variants.

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868 a new series of coins was ordered based on European currency systems and the koban was discontinued.