Genna Tsuho (Coin of the Genna Era) (元和通宝)

Genna Tsuho is a copper coin named after an era in the Edo period, which is thought to have been minted in around the first or second year of the Genna era (1615 or 1616) in Japan, and it is older than the Kanei Tsuho coin. Senbun (letters engraved on coins) is '元和通寳' (Genna Tsuho).

Like the Keicho Tsuho coin, an official minting record of this currency has not been confirmed, and there are some uncertainties such as whether it was issued by the Edo bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun), whether it was privately minted Bitasen (low quality coins whose surfaces were worn away), the purpose of the issuance, etc.

It is about 0.8 sun (2.4 cm) in diameter and 0.7 monme (2.6 g) in weight (mass), and is similar to Keicho Tsuho.

As the number of the coins in existence are much smaller than that of Keicho Tsuho, it seems unlikely that these coins were widely distributed, and it is possible that they were minted just as trial coins. There are some versions with differences in senbun, and 'daiji' (big letter), 'shoji' (small letter) and 'hiji' (thick letter) are known.

Other than copper coins, there are silver coins called 'Bansen,' which have Chinese characters to express numbers incused on the back, and they are said to have been minted by Mito City.

[Original Japanese]