in god we trust appeared on coins in 1864.
in god we trust appeared on coins in 1864.
when did in god we trust appear on coins?
1864
in 1768 the chamberlain tanuma okitsugu commissioned the creation of a brass "kan'ei tsūhō" cash coin with a face value of 4 mon, the initial version was cast at the fukugawa mint in the capital city of edo and had an iconic design with 21 waves on its reverse, the following year the reverse design was changed to only have 11 waves and all following versions of the 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" had this design. brass cash coins were made from an alloy of copper and zinc, these cash had been manufactured in china from the late ming dynasty onwards however due to the fact that zinc was not available in japan and had to be imported weren't being produced in japan prior. from this point on, the subcontract system for the minting of bronze cash coins came to an end and the ginza mint in edo had received a monopoly over the production of 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" brass cash coins. the 4 mon coin was notably only 2 millimeters bigger than the 1 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" cash coin making it cheaper to produce and getting more nominal value out of a comparable amount of copper, as copper had become more scarce in japan at the time these "kan'ei tsūhō" cash coins of 4 mon became more commonly produced because of their relative cost efficiency in respect to the lower denomination. as the economy was still growing the japanese population accepted these coins at their face value because of the strong demand for (circulating) currency. the government of the tokugawa shogunate requested a large number of these 4 mon coins to be cast between the years of 1821 and 1825 which falls within the bunsei period and are therefore dubbed "bunsei" coins as opposed to the earlier produced "meiwa coins", the bunsei era 4 mon cash coins produced in this period are of variable quality with a large quantity of them being of less than desirable workmanship while they still appear largely identical, the bunsei era 4 mon cash coins also tend to have a more reddish colour due to the fact that their alloys contained more different types of metals other than copper. 4 mon bunei kan'ei coins are just as common as those produced during the meiwa period. another type of 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" coins are the ansei kan'ei produced during the ansei era (1854–1859), these coins to be more yellowish due to the fact that they were made from brass as opposed to bronze and gave rough faces while they have very clear file marks. in 1860 the government of the tokugawa shogunate allowed for the production of iron "kan'ei tsūhō" coins due to extreme financial difficulties, but the attempt to mint iron cash coins failed due to the fact that iron is prone to oxidation making them difficult to use leading to them being quite uncommon. due to the fact that it was very profitable to make "kan'ei tsūhō" cash coins of 4 mon many counterfeits were produced by both illegal private mints and mints operated by clandestine "daimyō's". from 1866 the government of the tokugawa shogunate started giving domains official permission to cast iron 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" cash coins with their own finances, these coins can easily be differentiated by special markings on their back to identify the mint of origin. concurrently as the government of the tokugawa shogunate started to allow local domains to issue their own 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" coins they themselves started minting the "bunkyū eihō" (文久永宝) cash coin from 1863, the inscription on the coin refers to the bunkyū era (1861–1864), "eihō" (永宝) could be translated as "eternally circulating treasure" indicating a very hopeful name for the new series which didn't come into fruition as the japanese mon was superseded by the yen during the meiji restoration. like the 4 mon "kan'ei tsūhō" the "bunkyū eihō" were not produced at copper mints but at the silver and gold mints of the shogunate, they had a reverse design of 11 waves but tended to weigh less due to the fact that the price of copper was still rising.
kan'ei tsūhō
kuk swamp









































kuk swamp is an archaeological site in new guinea, that lies in the wahgi valley of the highlands. the swamp developed in a former lake basin, as it was filled by an alluvial fan or deposits of water-transported material. archeological evidence for early agricultural drainage systems was found here, beginning about 9,000 years ago. it includes draining ditches of three major classes, which were used to convert the area to an anthropogenic grassland. the native crop taro was grown here.
kuk swamp