Changes

==Early Coinage==

==Early Coinage==

[[File:Wadokaichin.jpg|right|thumb|200px|An example of a ''wadô kaichin'' coin, on display at the British Museum]]

[[File:Wadokaichin.jpg|right|thumb|400px|An example of a ''wadô kaichin'' coin, on display at the British Museum]]

It was long believed that the first currency to be produced in Japan was minted in the Wadô era (708-715), an era named after the discovery of copper in [[Musashi province]] (Wadô 和銅 literally means "Japanese copper"). These coins, with a face value of one ''mon'', were based on the ''kai yuan tong bao'' (開元通宝) coinage then circulating in [[Tang Dynasty]] China, and were minted in order to pay laborers for their work in building the new capital of [[Heijo-kyo|Heijô-kyô]].<ref name=britishmuseum>Gallery labels, British Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/47588044022/sizes/k/]</ref> These small round coins with square holes in the middle would serve as the standard model for the shape or form of coins in both China and Japan for many centuries. Recent discoveries since the 1990s, however, have unearthed earlier, unlabeled (''mumon'' 無文) silver coins, as well as coins known as ''fuhonsen'' 富本銭. The latter seem to have emerged in the 680s, during the period of [[Fujiwara-kyo|Fujiwara-kyô]]; in contrast to the ''mumon ginsen'' which were valued by their actual weight in silver, and which [[Emperor Temmu]] outlawed in [[683]], the ''fuhonsen'' were fiat money (face value).

It was long believed that the first currency to be produced in Japan was minted in the Wadô era (708-715), an era named after the discovery of copper in [[Musashi province]] (Wadô 和銅 literally means "Japanese copper"). These coins, with a face value of one ''mon'', were based on the ''kai yuan tong bao'' (開元通宝) coinage then circulating in [[Tang Dynasty]] China, and were minted in order to pay laborers for their work in building the new capital of [[Heijo-kyo|Heijô-kyô]].<ref name=britishmuseum>Gallery labels, British Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/47588044022/sizes/k/]</ref> These small round coins with square holes in the middle would serve as the standard model for the shape or form of coins in both China and Japan for many centuries. Recent discoveries since the 1990s, however, have unearthed earlier, unlabeled (''mumon'' 無文) silver coins, as well as coins known as ''fuhonsen'' 富本銭. The latter seem to have emerged in the 680s, during the period of [[Fujiwara-kyo|Fujiwara-kyô]]; in contrast to the ''mumon ginsen'' which were valued by their actual weight in silver, and which [[Emperor Temmu]] outlawed in [[683]], the ''fuhonsen'' were fiat money (face value).