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Japanese Coinage A Monetary History of Japan
Japanese Coinage A Monetary History of Japan
by Norman Jacobs and Cornelius C. Vermeule III ISBN 4-87187-872-4 978-4-87187-872-2 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...SBN=4871878724 http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871878724 This is the most comprehensive book on modern Japanese coinage ever published in English. This book was written in 1953 although it was not published in book form until 1972. Heretofore, collecting Japanese coins has not been universally popular in the West, and especially notable is the lack of interest among collectors and numismatic researchers in pre-modern Japanese coinage. This has been partly due to the dearth of English language numismatic literature and reference materials on the subject. I believe this lack of interest in and popularity of Japanese coin collecting is in no small measure also a result of the enigmatic and abstruse nature of the Japanese written language found on Japanese coins. Another reason is obviously the unavailability of Japanese coins in large numbers as compared to those of U.S. and other foreign coins in America and the West. However, interest in Japanese coin collecting has been growing among Westerners, and the burgeoning popularity entailed therein, has necessitated an examination of the available numismatic literature and reference materials on the market. Consequently, we found that "Japanese Coinage" by Dr. Norman Jacobs is probably the most authoritative and substantive book on modern Japanese coinage extant in English today. Unfortunately this very important and popular work on Japanese coins is difficult to find. The authors were Army Lieutenants in the US Military stationed in Tokyo Japan during the occupation, which lasted from 1945 to 1952. They were on General Douglas Douglas MacArthur's staff. He was known as SCAP, or Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. Cornelius C. Vermeule served under him in the Army as a Japanese interpreter. Norman Jacobs worked in Army Intelligence, reading Japanese language documents. I met them both at a gathering, as I was stationed there too. They were not professional coin dealers. They were avid collectors. They had access to the Money Museum in the Treasury of Japan and to all of the Japanese coins ever minted there. This gave them access to every kind of Japanese, Chinese and Korean coin. Their work has been much copied but has never been equaled. After the Japanese surrendered, General Douglas MacArthur confiscated and took all the gold and silver in the Bank of Japan, the Nippon Ginko. It was given back in 1952 when the occupation ended. Prior to this book, the first and the authoritative book in either English or Japanese on Japanese Coins was “Coins of Japan” by Neil Gordon Munro. That book was published in 1904. That book is extremely rare, almost impossible to obtain nowadays. Prior to the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese had odd and curious types of money. They were not necessarily round. They were oval, oblong or rectangular and had different weights and different values. Some had square holes in them. They were called “templesen”. The people carried them on strings around their necks. There was no system. It was chaotic. The coins mostly did not have a valuation placed on them. They were exchanged according to their weights. In 1870, the Japanese redid their monetary system and adopted the modern Western decimal system. Their coins used three kinds of metal, gold, silver and nickel. Later on, during the war, the Japanese introduced aluminum coins, as they had run out of other kinds of metal. Near the end of the war, the Japanese made the equivalent of what we consider to be coins out of ceramic tiles. Mario L. Sacripante New York December 16, 2009 |
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Japanese Coinage A Monetary History of Japan
samsloan wrote:
Japanese Coinage A Monetary History of Japan by Norman Jacobs and Cornelius C. Vermeule III ISBN 4-87187-872-4 978-4-87187-872-2 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/boo...SBN=4871878724 http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871878724 This is the most comprehensive book on modern Japanese coinage ever published in English. This book was written in 1953 although it was not published in book form until 1972. I have a copy of this book. It is indeed worthwhile. James |
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