Please Note: This is an authentic Japanese Samurai & Shogunate Treasure Coin, and you will receive and extensive Certificate of Authenticity & Documentation Package with your treasure.
FOR PENDANT SIZE SEE COIN DETAILS BELOW
The Samurai were famed for their code; the Bushido Code - the Way of the Warrior - that encompassed eight principles: Justice, Courage, Mercy, Politeness, Honesty, Honor, Loyalty, and Character and Self-Control. Their coins, minted in the waning days of their power, stand as witness to this extraordinary class of warrior, and the legacy they have left us.
The 2 “Bu”, formally a Nibu-Kin, in this pendant was the largest of the Samurai Gold coins, and its design is one of the most elegant to ever grace a coin. The apex of Edo era art is detailed in every line of the symbols of this stunning example of Samurai gold art.
Robert's Notes: Amazing condition for its age. The 7 pages of documentation that (that took me months to research and write) come with each coin explains in detail how these coins were used, and why they were secreted away, only to be discovered in modern times.
The exquisite design and rectangle shapes of the Samurai coinage began in 1601 and survived for over 250 years, a stunning example of the artistry that flourished in the Edo Period. But when Japan reopened to trade with the West in 1853, the coinage quickly became obsolete as the silver and gold exchange rates gave huge opportunities for foreigner merchants and sailors to export the coins for profit, leading to the loss of large quantities of precious metals in the form of coins to exportation.
Your coin comes from perhaps the most colorful era of Japanese history, when fierce warlords and their samurai warriors ruled feudal Japan. After 1869, following the abolition of the shogunate, rectangular coins were no longer minted in Japan, and were replaced by round coins. A new currency system based on the Japanese yen was progressively established along Western lines, which has remained Japan’s currency system to this day.
Since silver and gold coinage was generally owned only by the elite and wealthy, this beautiful Nibu-Kin coin may once have been carried by a proud samurai warrior.
