1937 "East Hopei" 1-fen

[villa66]

A 1937 1-fen coined for the Japanese puppet state in China known as the “East Hopei Anti-Comintern Government.” Struck in Osaka, Japan, the whole purpose of this small piece of military equipment was to help weaken the Chinese government’s hold on its territory.

In addition to this 1937 1-fen piece, there were four other “East Hopei” denominations. The five-member series was struck in 1936 and 1937, but all carried a 1937 date. Together the series had a total mintage of some 24,000,000 pieces, but a breakdown for each individual denomination is apparently unavailable.

The two copper coins in the series—the 5-li and this 1-fen—are often described as being of a copper composition, and of course that’s true as far as it goes. But it’s more precise to call them bronze, as they were struck of the same alloy (.950 copper, .40 tin, .10 zinc) as the contemporary Japanese 1-sen pieces then being coined in the name of Emperor Hirohito.

Of course the 1937 date of this 1-fen is pivotal. Japan invaded China in a most open and brutal way in 1937, and many folks regard the event as the real beginning of the Second World War.

This 1-fen piece—and the other members of the East Hopei series—had been somewhat disguised in their purpose, but after 1937 there was nothing at all clandestine or peripheral about Japanese ambitions in China. These “East Hopei” pieces were soon retired, and by 1941 they had been replaced by the coins of the “Federal Reserve Bank of China,” founded in 1938 in the Chinese capital.

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