Coin Pièce Japan 5 yuan Aluminium Sh?wa Tenn? 1944 Tokyo

The 5 Sen Sh?wa 19 is a Japanese coin issued in 1944, corresponding to the 19th year of the Sh?wa era, a period associated with the reign of Emperor Sh?wa Tenn?, also known as Hirohito. This coin was struck by the mint of Tokyo.

Made of aluminium, this coin reflects the particular economic and industrial context of the Second World War, during which Japan, like many other belligerent nations, was forced to resort to less precious and less strategically critical metals for the production of its circulating coinage. Aluminium, a light and abundant metal, was thus favoured for small denominations in order to preserve the metallic resources essential to the war effort.

The coin has a diameter of 19 millimetres and a weight of 1 gram, typical characteristics of small low-denomination coins. Its face value is 5 Sen, a Japanese monetary unit corresponding to one twentieth of a yen, then in circulation in Imperial Japan.

From an iconographic standpoint, coins of this era generally feature traditional Japanese motifs, such as floral representations or imperial symbols, accompanied by inscriptions in Japanese characters indicating the value and the year of issue according to the Japanese imperial calendar. The inscriptions refer to the Sh?wa era and the corresponding regnal year, in keeping with Japanese numismatic conventions of the time.

This coin stands as a direct numismatic testimony to the period of World War II in Japan, illustrating the monetary adaptations imposed by the economic and military constraints of the era, notably the widespread use of alternative alloys and metals to maintain the production of circulating currency.