This is a scan of military currency -see the top bar of each sample taped to the page. Does 'Ten Sen' translate to ten cents? I'm curious about that. Since I'm not adept at reading Chinese I am curious to know what the rest says in English. Were these issued to the U.S. Marines to be traded for currency, or was this used in lieu of cash? If you know please contact me. Thanks!
1 comment:
What you have is military scrip issued by the US. The writing is Japanese, not Chinese, as the scrip was used as a replacement currency. (One sen is 1/100 of a yen. At the time, it was 120 yen to a dollar, so those notes were worth less than a penny.) There were two types used in Japan: "A" and "B". Note the large letter "B" printed underneath the serial number. "A" notes were only in circulation for a couple months. "B" notes were issued to US troops who were supposed to participate in the invasion of Japan and were later used by military and Japanese civilians alike until 1948. They continued to be used on Okinawa until 1958, since the US maintained a presence there and wanted to control the money supply and prevent inflation. There was a Marine base in Okinawa then, so your father probably picked it up in Okinawa on his way home. Although he could have exchanged it for legal tender once he got home, it was probably far more interesting to him as a souvenir.
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