Coin Pièce Japan 1 sen Aluminium Sh?wa Tenn? 1944 Tokyo

Remarks:

plusieurs monnaies disponibles - années 1944 à 1945 - état similaire

The 1 Sen Sh?wa is a coin issued by Japan during years 19 and 20 of the Sh?wa era, corresponding to the years 1944 and 1945 of the Gregorian calendar. This period coincides with the final years of the Second World War, a context that largely explains the manufacturing choices made for this monetary issue.

The coin is struck in aluminium, a metal favoured at the time by the Japanese authorities due to shortages of copper and other strategic metals reserved for the war effort. This material choice gives the coin a characteristic lightness, with a weight of just 0.55 grams. Its diameter of 15 millimetres makes it a small coin, consistent with its face value of 1 Sen.

The issue is associated with the reign of Sh?wa Tenn?, the posthumous name of Emperor Hirohito, whose imperial era began in 1926. The dating of the coin follows Japan's own system of counting years by imperial era, which explains the reference to years 19 and 20 rather than Western calendar years.

The coin was minted by the Tokyo Mint, the principal institution for the production of Japanese coinage at the time. The face value, expressed in Sen, corresponds to one hundredth of a Yen, the base monetary unit of the Japanese monetary system. This low-denomination unit was commonly used in everyday transactions in Japan before post-war inflation gradually led to the abandonment of Yen subdivisions.

This coin stands as a direct testament to the economic and industrial constraints weighing on Imperial Japan during the final years of the global conflict, reflected both in the choice of metal and in the simplicity of its manufacture.