Hello Silver & Gold stackers! Another week and I have another Japanese coin banknote for you! Sorry, it's not silver. But for the numismatists in the group, it might be of interest.

This one isn't that old, but it is out of print so has now become a part of history.

I'll give some basic stats, then we'll look at both sides, and then I'll give some more general info!

Sound fun? Let's go!

Stats

Some basic stats for you:

Well.. it measures 72 mm by 159 mm. If you remember our ¥100 banknote (which I covered here) then you'll see this is a little shorter than that and a little wider. I like how Japanese banknotes vary the size based on the denomination.

Let's look a little closer!

Front Side

It has a face value of ¥500. The top right and bottom left have the 500 in Arabic numbers, the bottom right has it in Japanese characters (五百) and the middle has it in Japanese characters adding the word yen (五百円).

Above the amount in the center is written 日本銀行券 (nippon ginkō ken), "Note of the Bank of Japan". And below the value is written 日本銀行 (nippon ginkō), "Bank of Japan".

This isn't as highly decorated as the ¥100 banknote, but it does have a few nice touches. You can see some cherry blossoms a bit left of bottom center and some nice background designs.

That text below the cherry blossoms is 大蔵省印刷局製造 (ōkurashō insatsukyoku seizō), "Produced by the Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance".

Then we have this guy:

His name is Iwakura Tomomi (岩倉具視) and he was one of the leading figures in the Meiji Restoration, the period when Japan ditched her samurai government, gave power back to the emperor, and adopted all things Western. I'll say a few more words about him below.

Back Side

The back has this really nice picture of Mt Fuji. It also has what looks like a stretched out Slinky around most of the outer edge.

At the top written with Latin letters is nippon ginko, "Bank of Japan", then we have a few more 500s just in case you already forgot.

About

The 500 yen banknote lasted from 1951 to 1994. This is the second design used. A ¥500 coin was minted starting in 1982, but as I understand it this banknote was more popular until it was withdrawn from circulation in 1994 and people were forced to use the coin.

I don't keep many ¥500 coins. My kids usually swipe them as soon as I break a bill. But here's one of those.

The guy on the note, Iwakura Tomomi, was an interesting guy. He was born into the upper class and was an advisor to Emperor Kōmei. Kōmei was the father of the future emperor Meiji, for whom the post-samurai era would be named after. Kōmei was the first emperor in a long time who stretched arms and tried to grab more power than the emperors had been allowed in centuries. He didn't have much success at that, making him a very angry man for most of his reign.

Anyway, Iwakura eventually became a liaison between the court and the growing anti-Tokugawa movement that started gaining strength after Perry's Black Ships forced Japan to open for trade with the US in 1853-54 (the Tokugawa being the family which controlled the Shogunate which ran the country). After the revolution, he took a central role in the new Meiji government. He was a moderate and he opposed Japanese aggression in Korea, a move that nearly got him assassinated. He is perhaps most famous for the Iwakura Mission, which was going to Europe and America for 18 months, studying Western ways which Japan then adopted in the efforts to modernize the country as quickly as possible to avoid being colonized by the West.

Here it is comparing the size to the ¥100 banknote.

Overall

According to Wikipedia, this banknote is worth more than face value. I'm not sure where they get their info, because I've never seen it going for above face value in my time here. I paid exactly ¥500 for this one. Maybe for copies in perfect condition the value might go up.

I think they are still legal tender even though you never see people use them today, so I doubt you would find them for less than ¥500 or much more, but I suppose you never know.

A lot of my Japanese friends of a similar age to me find this banknote nostalgic because they grew up with it. One of my friends loved it so much he had me go buy one for him. I don't find it nearly as nice, but then again I don't have that nostalgic connection with it that some people do. I definitely prefer having ¥500 in coin form. It is an interesting bit of history though, so for that I'm glad to have it.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions!

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.