Four characters Eiraku Tsuho (for Yong Le Tong Bao) / Blank. 24mm, 3.76 grams. Hartill-3.26; JNDA-125.7.

High quality example with a hand-finished reverse.

The Kishū Eiraku Sen are an interesting group of Japanese silver coins of the late Azuchi–Momoyama period, generally dated to about 1580–1590. They copy the familiar Chinese Yongle Tongbao (永樂通寶) cash design introduced under the Ming Yongle emperor (1403–1424). Large quantities of genuine Chinese Yongle cash had circulated in Japan, where Eiraku Tsūhō became so familiar that the design was subsequently reproduced locally. Unlike ordinary copper Eiraku-sen, however, the Kishū pieces were struck in silver, generally weighing around 3–4 g, rather than cast as normal cash. Their precise purpose and issuing authority are not completely settled. Traditionally they are associated with Kishū (Kii Province, modern Wakayama Prefecture) and with the monetary experimentation of the late sixteenth century, when Japanese warlords increasingly employed weighed and coined precious metal alongside imported and locally produced copper cash.