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==History==
==History==
===Muromachi Period===
The export of copper, silver, or gold from China was banned by the [[Ming Dynasty]] court for much of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Towards the end of the 16th century, many ''daimyô'' or other regional powerholders began to expand mining efforts, and gold and silver began to circulate more extensively, and to be exported in greater volumes. Gold dust had long been a common element in gifts (tribute) paid by samurai lords and shogunates to the Imperial Court; bags of gold dust of a designated size, called ''nô'' (納), were valued at 20 ''ryô''.<ref>Kobata, 101.</ref> In the central regions of the country, where mining was most prevalent, taxes came to increasingly be paid in gold and silver; this was then exchanged for coins or rice. ''Kin'ya'' and ''gin'ya'' (gold and silver dealers) emerged and enabled these conversion (exchange) transactions. These dealers, along with firms officially licensed by the local lord, called ''ginza'' or ''tenbinza'', also dealt in producing, and certifying, pieces of gold and silver with a designated level of refinement or quality. Certified pieces, called ''hankin'' or ''gokuin-gin'' would be marked with numbers, kanji, ''[[kao|kaô]]'' (monograms), or crests, indicating the firm's certification. The term ''hankin'' would later be used in the Edo period to refer chiefly to ''ôban'' coins, but in fact the term could be applied to all certified & marked pieces of gold.
===Edo Period===
===Edo Period===
Gold coins became one of the chief modes of high-value [[currency]] in the [[Edo period]]. While gold or copper coins valued at face value (e.g. a 1 ''ryô'' coin worth 1 ''ryô'', or a one ''mon'' coin worth one ''mon'') were the more standard mode of currency in [[Edo]], silver valued by weight was more commonly used in the [[Kamigata]] region (i.e. [[Kyoto]] and [[Osaka]]).
Gold coins became one of the chief modes of high-value [[currency]] in the [[Edo period]]. While gold or copper coins valued at face value (e.g. a 1 ''ryô'' coin worth 1 ''ryô'', or a one ''mon'' coin worth one ''mon'') were the more standard mode of currency in [[Edo]], silver valued by weight was more commonly used in the [[Kamigata]] region (i.e. [[Kyoto]] and [[Osaka]]). While one gold ''ryô'' was ostensibly equal in value to one ''[[koku]]'' of rice, the value of gold increased dramatically over the course of the Edo period relative to that of rice, making many merchants who earned their incomes in silver and gold considerably wealthier than many samurai whose stipends were fixed to an amount of rice.<ref>Screech, Timon. "Owning Edo-Period Paintings." in Lillehoj, Elizabeth (ed.) ''Acquisition: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan''. Floating World Editions, 2007. p34.</ref> That said, though stipends were officially measured in rice, samurai were often paid in a combination of rice and gold coinage.<ref>Craig, Teruko (trans.). ''Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai''. University of Arizona Press, 1988. p.xv.</ref>
The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] debased and revalued coinage a number of times over the course of the Edo period in response to declining supplies of precious metals or other economic trends. One notable instance of this took place in [[1695]], when the shogunate ordered that newly-minted gold coins be made of only 57% gold, a reduction from their previous percentage. Silver coins were reduced from 80% silver to 64% at this same time.<ref name=hellyer59>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 59.</ref> That same year, the shogunate banned the export of gold and tightened restrictions on the export of silver.<ref name=hellyer59/>
The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] debased and revalued coinage a number of times over the course of the Edo period in response to declining supplies of precious metals or other economic trends. One notable instance of this took place in [[1695]], when the shogunate ordered that newly-minted gold coins be made of only 57% gold, a reduction from their previous percentage. Silver coins were reduced from 80% silver to 64% at this same time.<ref name=hellyer59>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 59.</ref> That same year, the shogunate banned the export of gold and tightened restrictions on the export of silver.<ref name=hellyer59/>
