[3] The final straw came in 1870, when prime minister Matsukata Masayoshi took notice of a major incident involving a domain counterfeiting Dajōkansatsu notes 太政官札贋造事件 [jp].
[4] Meiji Tsuho notes were designed by Edoardo Chiossone sometime in 1870 while he was working for Dondorf Naumann on behalf of The National Bank in the Kingdom of Italy.
[5] 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.
[6] 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 in Japan by the Imperial Printing Bureau.
[7] Dondorf and Naumann eventually sold their printing equipment to the Japanese government towards the end of 1873 (6th year of Meiji) due to financial issues.
[10] During this time legal tender Meiji Tsuho notes of all denominations had issues with paper quality, and were circulating with counterfeits.