Options
Road Trip...Osaka style (picture heavy and coins included)
Stork
Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've been busy with work and spending little time with coins...I'm coming to the end of my time in Japan and was very lucky to get some unexpected time last week to take a trip down to Kyoto (my previous trip had been planned for April but got cancelled...). We basically did a whirlwind through Kyoto, Nara and Osaka--home of the only whale shark in captivity and the Osaka Mint. Unfortunately the Aquarium is only closed for 7 days of the year--including June 22nd and 23rd. I'll give you a hint which days we were in Osaka...
First we had to get there... via the Shinkansen/bullet train. Very cool.
arrived into Kyoto, checked into our hotel and picked up a tour bus to Nara-where there was an Imperial Government household prior to the one established in Kyoto. There is a park area full of deer supposedly descended from one ridden down the mountain by a Shinto god--the deer are very pushy!
(these deer are hanging out at the Buddhist temple...largest Bronze Buddha statue in Japan)
The next day we visited around Kyoto--many temples, shrines and the Imperial Palace. Missed the geishas. Didn't see any...
This is the Golden Pavilion, a retired shogun type who found enlightenment donated his residence as a temple. Yes, that is gold. About 20 kilograms apparently.
Not so unusual footwear for sightseers. I would break an ankle.
Grounds of the Imperial residence. Home to the Imperial family for over a 1000 years. One of the rooms (no photos allowed) showed where the 16th (?) shogun returned power to the Imperial family. THis was followed shortly by the move of the Imperial family to take up residence in Edo (Tokyo). Very political.
The next day we took a train to Osaka.
We got settled into the hotel and then our next stop was the Japan Mint. The grounds are famous for cherry blossom viewing, and to the surprise of many, even Japanese, there is a nice museum there. We were able to see a short movie on the history of the mint which was thankfully subtitled. The displays were all in Japanese, I guess it's not a big tourist attraction!
Outside the mint were some of the original coin presses, purchased from Hong Kong back in the day apparently.
There were models inside showing these machines at work. Unfortunately my camera battery was dying and I had to limit my picture taking.
Actual coins in the next post...
First we had to get there... via the Shinkansen/bullet train. Very cool.
arrived into Kyoto, checked into our hotel and picked up a tour bus to Nara-where there was an Imperial Government household prior to the one established in Kyoto. There is a park area full of deer supposedly descended from one ridden down the mountain by a Shinto god--the deer are very pushy!
(these deer are hanging out at the Buddhist temple...largest Bronze Buddha statue in Japan)
The next day we visited around Kyoto--many temples, shrines and the Imperial Palace. Missed the geishas. Didn't see any...
This is the Golden Pavilion, a retired shogun type who found enlightenment donated his residence as a temple. Yes, that is gold. About 20 kilograms apparently.
Not so unusual footwear for sightseers. I would break an ankle.
Grounds of the Imperial residence. Home to the Imperial family for over a 1000 years. One of the rooms (no photos allowed) showed where the 16th (?) shogun returned power to the Imperial family. THis was followed shortly by the move of the Imperial family to take up residence in Edo (Tokyo). Very political.
The next day we took a train to Osaka.
We got settled into the hotel and then our next stop was the Japan Mint. The grounds are famous for cherry blossom viewing, and to the surprise of many, even Japanese, there is a nice museum there. We were able to see a short movie on the history of the mint which was thankfully subtitled. The displays were all in Japanese, I guess it's not a big tourist attraction!
Outside the mint were some of the original coin presses, purchased from Hong Kong back in the day apparently.
There were models inside showing these machines at work. Unfortunately my camera battery was dying and I had to limit my picture taking.
Actual coins in the next post...
0
Comments
Here is a model of the dragon featured on many of the coins...see the pearl!
There was a display of start-to-finish the making of the current 500 yen coin:
Trying to show the display of how the extra 500 has been incorporated into the design:
Hands on: 15 kg of gold (that is my youngest's hand)
Next came displays of the progression of money over time and in the central areas floating displays--very cool. Various museum workers stopped to practice their English with us (very well I might add). At the floating Oban display one guy pointed out they were each worth a million dollars...
There was a set of the 1892 mintage for the World's Fair:
One of my favorites--the 50 sen variety with the double hoo birds on the front, but Taisho year 7 with the crow in the center of the sunburst. 24,000,000 yen in my 2008 JNDA catalog (my newer ones are already on the way to my next duty station). Not a great picture, but maybe you can see the crow and the year in the magnifying glass.
More to come in next post...
A proof commemorative set for the the 60th Anniversary...
A couple of awards for the Enthronement design and the 500 yen:
Plus a random seeming selection of foreign coins--including the humble 1971 JFK!
I wish I had more shots but I was battling a dying battery--wasn't using the flash and didn't take the full shots.
One thing I forgot to mention, while watching the video of the coinage history it was mentioned that in the past the silver and gold coins (oban, koban etc) were of high quality, but over the years, with expensive battles etc. the shoguns (each had their own coinage) began debasing their coins until around 1855 or so when this became a monetary crisis. Plus once Japan opened up to the rest of the world the gold and silver coins began leaving at unfavorable exchanges. Foreign coins began getting used due to their higher quality. It was not too long after that the shoguns returned power to the Emperor and it was he who made the plans to start and open the Japan Mint in Osaka--with strong money.
Very interesting, inflation, monetary debasement, followed by political upheaval ultimately with the establishment of the new Mint. Osaka was a merchant/trade location (Kyoto had been the city of the nobility and Edo the seat of the shoguns) and with that history as well as favorable waterway access etc. this was the place chosen.
Very fun trip and my whole family enjoyed it!
Anyway, back to my lurking...as I mentioned we are leaving Japan and won't likely come back. My next set of orders will almost assuredly be my last and we are headed to Rota, Spain
I'm very glad to have gotten to the Japan Mint, and as usual the monetary history does shed some interesting light on the political history.
Cathy
btw, I think you deserve a You Suck just for the duty assignments! Have fun in Rota! Time to find some Spanish catalogs, I guess
My wantlist & references
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
BTW heard there have been some changes at Rota - somebody high up got in trouble because of their kid.
8 Reales Madness Collection
There is a very detailed (if slightly expensive) book in English about the founding of the Japanese Mint that was published in 1999 by Brill Academic Publishers. The title is "Thomas William Kinder and the Japanese Imperial Mint, 1868 - 1875" by Roy S. Hanashiro. The ISBN is 978-9004113459.
You can preview parts of the book on Google Books.
Those presses are indeed Boulton & Watt presses originally from the short-lived Hong Kong Mint.
Edited to add the author's name.
FOR SALE Items
Here is a medal commemorating the opening of the Osaka Mint in 1870. I doubt this was struck on the Watt presses (that came from Hong Kong) because of the large diameter (67mm).
Collecting:
Conder tokens
19th & 20th Century coins from Great Britain and the Realm
Successful BSTs with: Grote15, MadMarty, Segoja,cucamongacoin,metalsman.
Cathy
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
<< <i>I'm glad people enjoy the pictures. I've not bee overly involved in my coins lately--too much life going on--so it was nice to find the spark while traveling. Cool links Preubas, and unfortunately I now want that book, but it's about $140 on Amazon. I'm actually thinking about it
Cathy, I was thinking the same thing and had the book in my shopping cart waiting for the price to decrease. It never did, so I finally broke down and ordered the darn thing. Interesting book, but it's more about Japanese modernization as a result of the Meiji Restoration than technical details of building the Mint and minting operations, which is my interest. There is a discussion about the Sanbu coins which are countermarked Mexican 8 Reales (usually 1859 of various Mexican mints). I had often wondered about the history of these coins.
Start saving your money because there is an extremely nice collection of Japanese coins and patterns coming to auction in September at Long Beach. Imagine the patterns struck in the early 1870s right after Japan first opened to the world on those very presses which you photographed!