Koban (coin)
Coin from the Edo period of Japan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Koban (coin)?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
SHOW ALL QUESTIONS
For other uses, see Koban (disambiguation).
The koban (小判) was a Japanese oval gold coin in Edo period feudal Japan, equal to one ryō, another early Japanese monetary unit. It was a central part of Tokugawa coinage.
The Keichō era koban, a gold piece, contained about one ryō of gold, so that koban carried a face value of one ryō. However, successive mintings of the koban had varying (usually diminishing) amounts of gold. As a result, the ryō as a unit of weight of gold and the ryō as the face value of the koban were no longer synonymous.
In modern times, they are sold as Engimono (at-least, gold-foil cardboard versions), from Shinto shrines.