Outline and history

Present “Banknote and Postage Stamp Museum”

It was in 1871 that the National Printing Bureau was established under the name of the Paper Money Office of the Ministry of Finance.

It was also around the same time that modern banknotes and stamps were created in Japan. Since then, the Bureau has been consistently manufacturing Japanese banknotes and stamps and has walked together with these products for 150 years.

As a result, many products manufactured to this day become valuable materials that convey the history of banknotes, stamps, and printing technology.

The Banknote and Postage Stamp Museum was established in Ichigaya, Shinjuku city, Tokyo, in 1971 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bureau, and moved to Oji, Kita city, Tokyo, in March 2011.

The exhibition room displays various products manufactured by the Bureau, including banknotes, stamps, and securities, as well as a variety of other materials, including pre-Meiji era notes, foreign banknotes and stamps, and copperplate engravings closely related to banknote manufacturing, and explains the history of banknotes and anti-counterfeiting technologies.

We hope that visitors will use the Museum’s exhibits to learn about banknotes and stamps.

“Banknote and Postage Stamp Museum” logo in the upper left corner of the page uses a typeface called “ Okura Reisho,” which is used for the names and face value numerals on the banknotes.The “ Okura Reisho” was created by the Bureau as a unique typeface for banknotes and securities and has been used as a traditional typeface since the end of the War.
Both sides of the characters have a Guilloche pattern used on banknotes, which has been used since the Meiji era for its decorative and anti-counterfeiting features and is now a symbolic pattern on banknotes.