Samurai: 19th Century Silver Coin

Order Code: SAMURAI-BITBOX
Weight/Dimensions: 80 g | 3.5" L x 3.5" W x 1" H
Metal: Silver

From the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876, samurai were the hereditary military nobility of Japan. These highly trained, highly paid warriors were in service to the daimyo, the Japanese feudal landowners, and lived according to a code of conduct, called the bushido, that valued bravery in the face of death, indifference to pain, fierce family pride, and unflinchingly selfless loyalty and devotion to the lord and master. Samurai emerged during the medieval Kamakura shogunate and were dissolved during the Meiji Restoration, when modern weapons of war rendered them obsolete.

In the 19th century, Japan issued hammered coinage made of precious metals: silver shu, the larger silver bu, and the gold/silver ni bu. These circulated in the last days of the samurai. This contains a silver bu coin.