World Coin BookWorld coin encyclopedia

Japan · 1912–1957 transition

Taishō and Shōwa Coinage

Trace Japan’s coinage from late-Meiji standards through Taishō silver and holed cupronickel, early-Shōwa nickel, wartime aluminum and tin, surrender-period bridge issues, and the first modern yen families.

大正・昭和の貨幣

Obverse of the Taisho 11 (1922) 50 Sen of Japan Reverse of the Taisho 11 (1922) 50 Sen of Japan
As6673, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; deterministic crop and conversion. · Representative contextual pair
Core routes
20
Issue studies
14
Exact image pairs
15
Indexable routes
0

Context

Historical and monetary setting

The period is a sequence of design and material generations rather than one uniform imperial catalog. Precious-metal and cupronickel types survived across reign boundaries; the 1938 Temporary Currency Act then opened a wartime sequence of lighter and substitute materials. Postwar reform reused available brass before new yen denominations stabilized.

Identification

How to classify the object

Classify denomination, date era, hole, edge, design generation, and composition together. Similar denominations can differ materially in mass and diameter; color alone cannot identify alloy.

Evidence boundary

What this page does not claim

Colonial, occupied-territory, military, note, token, medal, and commemorative issues are outside this route. Unissued pieces remain explicitly separate.

Material evolution

A sequence, not one alloy for every denomination

  1. Late Meiji–TaishoGold / silver
  2. 1916–1932Bronze / cupronickel
  3. 1933–1937Nickel
  4. 1938–1940Aluminum-bronze / brass
  5. 1938–1946Aluminum
  6. 1944–1946Tin / tin-zinc
  7. 1946–1957Postwar brass / nickel / silver

Iron remains a search and evidence-correction topic: no issued domestic national iron type is verified in the controlling official tables.

Transition timeline

From mature Meiji standards to modern Yen

  1. Late Meiji standards
  2. Taisho composition changes
  3. Early Showa modernization
  4. Wartime metal substitution
  5. Emergency materials
  6. Surrender and postwar redesign

Continue

Related Taisho–Showa references

Taishō CoinageEarly Shōwa Prewar CoinageWartime Japanese CoinageEmergency Coin MaterialsPostwar Coinage Transition

Evidence

Sources and scope

These links support the claims on this page. Source authority does not imply permission to republish source images.

Coins from the Meiji era onward Bank of Japan Currency Museum

Official specifications, first-issue years, legal-expiry dates, wartime and postwar regular types.

Open source
150 Years of the Japan Mint Japan Mint

Institutional history, Temporary Currency Act, strategic-metal substitutions, ceramic production, surrender, occupation supervision, and postwar scrap reuse.

Open source