# Asian currency: maybe during occupation after WWII **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409 "2017-12-27T19:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/1 "2017-12-27T19:47:02Z")
I dug through my uncles old things the other day (He died in 1980), and found these currency notes that had probably been in his wallet for years. He was in the Marines during WWII, but I don’t think he saw much beyond the Aleutian Islands. [[Album] Asian currency (post war occupation?) ![](https://i.imgur.com/SjyynJG.jpeg?fb "Asian currency (post war occupation?)") ](https://imgur.com/a/Ycfrb) Can anyone identify or give me some context about where these are from and roughly when they would be used. Value is always something to think about, but since they are in such poor state, I expect them to be worth very little. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/2 "2017-12-27T20:10:50Z")
The bottom one seems to be prewar 10 yen [featuring this guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_no_Kiyomaro). 1930 I think: [Navona Numismatics: Wake no Kiyomaro on Japan 10 Yen Banknotes](http://navonanumis.blogspot.com/2013/05/wake-no-kiyomaro-on-japan-10-yen.html) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/3 "2017-12-27T20:11:24Z")
Top two are Japanese 1 yen notes. Bottom is 10 yen. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/4 "2017-12-27T20:14:47Z")
The first is a 50 sen note, as per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_currency#World_Wars) on Japanese currency the example is listed at 1946. The second is a [50 Yen](http://core.ecu.edu/hist/tuckerjo/money.htm) note. The third is a 10 Yen originally [issued](http://nutmegcollector.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-10-yen-1930-banknote-on-u-s.html) 1930. eta: hmm. 50 sen is? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/5 "2017-12-27T20:21:36Z")
Damn. Of course 50 sen (1/2 yen.) I was looking so hard at the date I wasn’t seeing the denomination. Anyway, I believe the first 50 sen note is Showa 18 (1943). The middle one I can’t recognize the date immediately (it is in the series of characters down the right-hand side) but you can decode it with [this](http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/emperor-date.html) and [this](http://www.japanese-language.aiyori.org/japanese-words-30.html) and [this](http://seinenkai.com/articles/dates.html). Bottom note doesn’t have visible date (it would be on the reverse.) (FWIW, I have examples of all three notes in my banknote collection.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/6 "2017-12-27T20:26:10Z")
Okay, the second 50 sen [is 1938](https://www.banknotes.com/jp58.htm). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/7 "2017-12-27T23:40:41Z")
Current value—I get many of these on a monthly basis. I throw them in a box of notes for 50 cents each U.S. If they were in new condition, I would put in a $2. each box. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/8 "2017-12-27T23:59:32Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Damn. Of course 50 sen (1/2 yen.) I was looking so hard at the date I wasn’t seeing the denomination. > > Anyway, I believe the first 50 sen note is Showa 18 (1943). The middle one I can’t recognize the date immediately (it is in the series of characters down the right-hand side) but you can decode it with [this](http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/emperor-date.html) and [this](http://www.japanese-language.aiyori.org/japanese-words-30.html) and [this](http://seinenkai.com/articles/dates.html). Interestingly, you can’t. You are correct that the date is written down the right-hand side, but it doesn’t use the familiar nengou system counting from the start of the shouwa emperor’s reign, but an older system that reckons the years from the accession of the (legendary) first emperor, Jimmu, in 660 BC (神武天皇即位紀元). I did not know that this system was in use in the 20th century. The text says 紀元二千五百九十八年　2,598 years from the start of the era, which is indeed 1938. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/9 "2017-12-28T00:11:43Z")
BTW, not really relevant to your note, but an interesting tidbit of history. Sometimes you will find an old WWII era banknote with writing all over it. Soldiers had a hobby of having people that they meet sign them. If one note filled up, they would tape another one to the end of it, so you might even see a strip of banknotes from several nations in the European or Pacific theater. They called them “[short snorters](http://www.shortsnorter.org/).” Another tidbit–the notes in the OP were for native use in Japan, but as Japan invaded and took over various countries in the Pacific, [they would replace the native currency with a new one of their own](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_money) in the unit of each nation, so you may find Pounds, Rupees, Pesos, etc. issued by the Japanese Government. (That’s one of the things that interests me about banknotes besides the aesthetics of them–they are portable history lessons.) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/10 "2017-12-28T04:16:43Z")
What puzzles me is why the text on this invasion currency is in English–not the local language or even Japanese! ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/11 "2017-12-28T04:30:02Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > What puzzles me is why the text on this invasion currency is in English–not the local language or even Japanese! English was the local administrative language. The Philippines used English on its banknotes until 1969 ([example](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/P1_English_series_%28Obverse%29.jpg)), and English is still an official language. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/12 "2017-12-28T05:02:28Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > What puzzles me is why the text on this invasion currency is in English–not the local language or even Japanese! > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > English was the local administrative language. The Philippines used English on its banknotes until 1969 ([example](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/P1_English_series_%28Obverse%29.jpg)), and English is still an official language. The Philippines was an American Commonwealth at the time, and so used English. Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Singapore, and Brunei were British colonies, as was Burma; they all used English. The Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) was a Dutch colony; their invasion money was in Dutch: [Japanese invasion money - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_money#/media/File:NI-125c-Netherlands_Indies-Japanese_Occupation-10_Gulden_(1942).jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/13 "2017-12-28T06:10:09Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > What puzzles me is why the text on this invasion currency is in English–not the local language or even Japanese! Where is the English text? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/14 "2017-12-28T06:10:59Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > The Philippines was an American Commonwealth at the time, and so used English. Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Singapore, and Brunei were British colonies, as was Burma; they all used English. The Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) was a Dutch colony; their invasion money was in Dutch: [Japanese invasion money - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_money#/media/File:NI-125c-Netherlands_Indies-Japanese_Occupation-10_Gulden_(1942).jpg). OK, I see that…but I remember seeing, a long time ago, invasion currency in pesos, apparently for Mexico, printed under the authority of the Japanese Government…I hope my memory isn’t playing tricks on me after more than fifty years… ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2017, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/15 "2017-12-28T06:13:44Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > OK, I see that…but I remember seeing, a long time ago, invasion currency in pesos, apparently for Mexico, printed under the authority of the Japanese Government…I hope my memory isn’t playing tricks on me after more than fifty years… They were for the Philippines, which also uses a currency called the peso. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asian-currency-maybe-during-occupation-after-wwii/805409/16 "2017-12-29T13:27:03Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Where is the English text? The [invasion currency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_money)mentioned in post#9.