Manen Oban (Large-Sized Gold Coin of the Manen Era) (万延大判)
Manen Oban is a large-sized old Japanese gold coin issued in intercalary April of 1860; it is also called Shin Oban.
Differing from the Oban (large-sized gold coin) that had been issued up to that time, Manen Oban had the purpose of being used as a currency, and it was issued as a 25-ryo gold coin, 25 times of Manen Koban (small-sized gold coin of the Manen era).
Summary
On the surface, a seal mark 'Ju-ryo Goto' was written in Indian ink by the 17th mint master Tenjo, the descendant of the mint master Shirobe GOTO. A total of four hallmarks of circular paulownia patterns are carved on the left, right, top and bottom of Manen Oban. It has a shape of angular ellipse, which is the same as the ones minted up to that time. However, the weight value was based on one gold coin of 30 monme, which was substantially lower in value than the weight value of a gold coin up to that time, 44 monme. Manen Oban has two kinds of surface patterns: taganeme, in which tiny dots were chiseled all over the surface without space, and noshime, which is a pattern of binding knots. There are more Manen Oban with the noshime pattern remaining than the ones with the taganeme pattern.
The numbers of minted Manen Oban that are known based on the hallmarks on the back side are as follows. From April 13, 1860, until June 14, 1860, a total of 854 Manen Oban with the hallmarks of '恒, 宇, 吉' (tsune, u, yoshi) and '伊, 宇, き' (i, u, ki) in the taganeme pattern were minted. From June 18, 1860, until August 15, 1861, a total of 9491 Manen Oban with the hallmarks of '吉, 宇, き' (yoshi, u, ki) and '吉, 安, 大' ('yoshi, yasu, dai) in the noshime pattern were minted. From August 16, 1861, until February 12, 1863, the pattern was changed back to taganeme; 4565 Manen Oban with the hallmarks of '吉, 宇, き' (yoshi, u, ki) in the taganeme pattern were minted, and 2187 Manen Oban with '吉, 安, 大' (yoshi, yasu, dai) in the taganeme pattern were minted.
Manen Oban was used from May 30, 1860, until the end of September 1874, when the use of old gold and silver coins was stopped.