June 21, 2011

The Japanese Yen


The Japanese yen (円 or 圓 en?) (sign: ¥; code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro.[1][verification needed] It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling. As is common when counting in East Asia, large quantities of yen are often counted in multiples of 10,000 (man, 万) in the same way as values in Western countries are often quoted in thousands.

In the 19th century silver Spanish dollar coins were prolific throughout South east Asia, the China coast, and Japan. These coins had been introduced through Manila over a period of two hundred and fifty years, arriving on ships from Acapulco in Mexico. These ships were known as the Manila galleons. Until the 19th century these silver dollar coins were actual Spanish dollars minted in the new world, mostly at Mexico City. But from the 1840s they were increasingly replaced by silver dollars of the new Latin American republics. In the latter half of the 19th century some local coins in the region were made in the likeness of the Mexican peso. The first of these local silver coins was the Hong Kong silver dollar coin that was minted in Hong Kong between the years 1866 and 1868. The Chinese were slow to accept unfamiliar coinage and preferred the familiar Mexican dollars, and so the Hong Kong government ceased minting these coins and sold the mint machinery to Japan.

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Ryu
ryu@mercy.co.jp
+815055328180
www.prosperjp.com