Antique Coins
Over 200 antique coins were excavated from the Ninomaru Goten site. Among them were 17 varieties of coins from China (33 Chinese coins in total) and one coin from the Korean Peninsula.
Archaeologists had hoped to find coins minted in Matsumoto. In 1636, the shogunate introduced a new copper coin called the kan’ei, which became the standard currency of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). These coins were minted at about a dozen sites around Japan, including in Matsumoto, and a batch of kan’ei coins was produced there in 1637. Unfortunately, no Matsumoto coins were unearthed at the Ninomaru Goten. Most of the Japanese coins found at the site were re-denominated versions known as shin-kan’ei, which came into circulation after 1668.
The excavation also uncovered branch-like metal sprues left over from the minting process and counterfeit coins made from the metal bowls of tobacco pipes.