1 sen coin


The one sen coin was a Japanese coin worth one-hundredth of a Japanese yen, as 100 sen equalled 1 yen. These coins were minted from the late 19th century until the end of World War II. Like the other denominations of sen, these coins were eventually taken out of circulation at the end of 1953.

Composition

YearsMaterial
1873–188898% Copper, 2% Tin and Zinc
1898–193895% Copper, 4% Tin, 1% Aluminium
193890% Copper, 10% Zinc
1938–1943100% Aluminium
1944–194550% Tin, 50% Zinc

Circulation figures

Meiji

The following are circulation figures for one sen coins that were minted between the 6th, and 42nd year of Meiji's reign. The dates all begin with the Japanese symbol 明治, followed by the year of his reign the coin was minted. Each coin is read clockwise from right to left, so in the example used below "一十二" would read as "year 21" or 1888. Some of the mintages included cover more than one variety of a given coin. Pattern coins from 1869 and 1870 are extremely rare.
Year of reignJapanese dateGregorian dateMintage
6th1873
7th1874
8th1875
9th1876
10th1877
13th三十1880
14th四十1881
15th五十1882
16th六十1883
17th七十1884
18th八十1885
19th九十1886
20th十二1887
21st一十二1888
25th五十二1892Unknown
31st一十三1898 (Reduced weight
32nd二十三1899
33rd三十三1900
34th四十三1901
35th五十三1902
39th九十三1906Not circulated
42nd二十四1909Not circulated

Taishō

The following are circulation figures for one sen coins that were minted between the 2nd and 13th year of Taishō's reign. The dates all begin with the Japanese symbol 大正, followed by the year of his reign the coin was minted. Each coin is read clockwise from right to left, so in the example used below "二十" would read as "year 12" or 1923.
Year of reignJapanese dateGregorian dateMintage
2nd1913
3rd1914
4th1915
5th1916 (Reduced size
6th1917
7th1918
8th1919
9th1920
10th1921
11th一十1922
12th二十1923
13th三十1924

Shōwa

The following are circulation figures for one sen coins that were minted between the, and year of Emperor Shōwa's reign. The dates all begin with the Japanese symbol 昭和, followed by the year of his reign the coin was minted. Each coin is read clockwise from right to left, so in the example used below "二十" would read as "year 12" or 1937. The size and weight of one sen coins were dropped significantly in 1938 with the Aluminium "Type 3" issue. Additional modifications of size and weight were also carried out in 1941 and 1944. Coin patterns that include examples struck on porcelain are not included here as they were never issued for circulation. It is unknown how many unofficial locally made clay baked coins circulated.
Year of reignJapanese dateGregorian dateMintage
2nd192726,500,000
4th19293,000,000
5th19305,000,000
6th193125,001,222
7th193235,066,715
8th193338,936,907
9th1934100,004,950
10th1935200,009,912
11th一十1936109,170,428
12th二十1937133,196,568
13th三十1938 TY1 Cu87,649,338
13th三十1938 TY2 Br113,600,000
13th三十1938 TY3 Al45,502,266
14th四十1939444,602,146
15th五十1940601,110,015
16th六十19411,016,620,734
17th七十1942119,709,832
18th八十19431,163,949,434
18th八十1943 627,160,000
19th九十19441,629,580,000
20th十二1945Unknown