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Japanese Currency

Bill denominations

Japanese paper money comes in 1, 5 and 10 thousand yen bills. There is also a 5 hundred yen bill, but is no longer being produced and has been replaced with a 500 yen coin.

Unique features

Each bill is sized differently. The thousand yen being the shortest, the 5 thousand yen bill is approximately 1 cm longer and the 10 thousand yen bill is 1 cm longer than the 5 thousand.

Each bill also has Braille writing in the corner for the seeing impaired.

Each bill has watermarks in order to prevent counterfeiting. 




1000 yen bill
Thousand yen bill
5000 yen bill
5 thousand yen bill
10,000 yen bill
10 thousand yen bill.

This is the largest bill in public circulation.
500 yen coin 100 yen coin 50 yen coin
10 yen coin 5 yen coin 1 yen coin

Good luck
The 5 yen coin in Japanese is pronounced "go-en". This also coincidentally means "good luck". For this reason the 5 yen coin is thought to be good luck.
Glossary of Terms

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en The Japanese pronounciation of "yen"

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satsu a bill / bills

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kozeni a coin / coins

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okane money
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