Early Japanese Coins

This well illustrated and easy to use catalogue covers Japanese pre-Meji coins. With this book it is now possible for non-experts to understand and classify Kanei Tsuho and Isshu Gin coins.It has useful sections on rarity and price, methods of manufacture, Japanese calligraphy, pronunciation, writing, names, numbers, traditional units of measurement, era names, Shoguns and the provinces of feudal Japan.David Hartill has produced the standard English language reference book for these coins.

This book is now available from New Generation Publishing, as well as through Amazon.

This book makes sense of a puzzling series of coins, most of which seem superficially very similar and many of which are easily mistaken by beginners for Chinese cash coins. There is no other English-language catalogue that I know of which would allow this level of accuracy of identification.

Super, un classiqueBelles illustrations, détails, information s et références... Top

Uno de los mejores catálogos de moneda japonesa del periodo Edo que se pueden encontrar

very clear construction of this catalogue, perfect illustrations; great and very helpful for an European collector of Japanese cash-coins

Il libro è molto dettagliato ma i disegni a volte non sono chiari, qualità prezzo buono, lo raccomando a chi piace il genere.

I only wish this book had been available when I was still living in Japan.Areas of coins that can be intimidating to the Western coin collector are the 'cash' type coins as well the other (gasp, not even round!) non-western style type coinages. I happen to have a fondness for things Japanese (including coins), but even so I did avoid the pre-Meiji era coins as the only reading resources I knew of were scarce, limited, difficult to understand, pricey or some combination of all these issues. The 'gold standard' resource would definitely be Munro, but as it was written in 1904 the writing style is not as accessible to the modern reader, not to mention it was hard to find (in nice copy that is--the OCR and xerox copies floating around often left a lot to be desired, though there is a 2010 printing that is quite serviceable now).Enter this book--it gives an excellent introduction to the numbers, locations, era/Emperor names etc so when trying to look up specific coins they make sense. The illustrations and kanji depictions are clear and the layout of the information is very understandable. There is plenty of historical reference relating to the changes in the coinage as well which makes for interesting reading as well.Basically the coinage is covered starting from the 'twelve antique coins' dating back to the Nara period following through periods of Chinese coin usage, imitations of the Chinese designs etc. The changes are well described and depicted. There are also excellent descriptions and black and white illustrations showing the old and new Kanei Tsuho type coinage including mintmarks and a well done 'finding guide' in order to identify different styles. I can go on, but rather here is a listing of the contents (comments in parentheses are mine):IntroductionCatalog conventionsRarity and price guide (not specific prices, but ranges which is more useful as they are relative and values change over time)Japanese Calligraphy (different styles)Japanese Pronunciation, Writing and NamesJapanese Numbers and other common charactersTraditional Units of MeasurementEra Names of Modern Times (modern as in 1500s or so through Meiji/1868)ShogunsMethod of Manufacture (with old woodcut type illustrations from Japan)Illustrating CoinsMap of Japan and Neighbouring Countries (okay, I quibble here, Tokyo is really out of place on this map!)The Provinces of Feudal JapanBibliography (very nice!)THE CATALOGUE1. Early Coinage/the Twelve Antique Coins2. Bita Sen3. Momoyama and Early Edo Periods4. Kanei Tsuho Coins5. Other Edo Period Coins6. Provincial Coins7. Decorative Coins, Amulets and E-sen8. Gold Coins9. Silver Coins (the very many types..)If I could have only one book referring to the pre-Meiji coinage this would be the one I would choose. The information is clear and well laid out, and has excellent descriptions, historical notes and illustrations, with research notes and citations provided. (Okay, if someone were to give me a well kept 1904 copy of Munro I'd take that too, but for readability, clarity and value I like this one!).Excellent resource and HIGHLY recommended!!JTGedited because my grammar sucks (and I probably still have some typos left...)