Framed by the decline of the Heian aristocracy in the late 1100s and the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1600s, Japan’s medieval era was a chaotic period of diffuse political power and frequent military strife. This instability prevented central authorities from regulating trade, issuing currency, enforcing contracts, or guaranteeing property rights. But the lack of a strong central government did not inhibit economic growth. Rather, it created opportunities for a wider spectrum of society to participate in trade, markets, and monetization. Peripheral elites—including merchants, warriors, rural estate managers, and religious leaders—devised new ways to circumvent older forms of exchange by importing Chinese currency, trading in local markets, and building an effective system of long-distance money remittance. Over time, the central government recognized the futility of trying to stifle these developments, and by the sixteenth century it asserted greater control over monetary matters throughout the realm. Drawing upon diaries, tax ledgers, temple records, and government decrees, Ethan Isaac Segal chronicles how the circulation of copper currency and the expansion of trade led to the start of a market-centered economy and laid the groundwork for Japan’s transformation into an early modern society.

The political fragmentation and constant warfare of medieval Japan did not necessarily inhibit economic growth. Rather, as this book shows, these conditions created opportunities for a wider spectrum of society to participate in trade, markets, and monetization, laying the groundwork for Japan's transformation into an early modern society.

2nd Edition. This comprehensive 288-page full-color book details how to begin the ideal numismatic pursuit: a collection of United States coins by type. Major updates to the 2nd edition are: new market values, new certified-coin population data, updated "Market Price Performance" charts, new coins, new section on "Great Collectors and Collections of the Past", new historical illustrations, updated auction records and a bullion-value chart. Whether you decide to collect from the beginning of United States coins in the late 1700s, or if you choose coins from the 1800s and 1900s, this book will provide you the reference tools you need: mintages, grades, collecting tips, prices, and more, all in one essential historical reference and price guide. Author: Q. David Bowers

Whitman Publishing debuted the Handbook of United States Coins in 1942. It was the first unbiased, authoritative resource showing how much coin dealers were paying on average to buy U.S. coins by type, date, and mintmark. The groundbreaking new book was an immediate hit, popular with dealers and collectors alike. For more than 79 years coin dealers have used the OFFICIAL BLUE BOOK(R) (as it came to be known) to make buying offers. As a collector, you can use it to find out how much your coins are worth! The Blue Book's price listings offer a real-world look at the rare-coin market, gathered from dealers around the country. The new 79th edition includes updated prices, special features, and many new photographs. Coverage includes colonial and early American coins, federal coins (half cents through gold double eagles), commemoratives, Proof sets, die varieties, private and territorial gold, tokens, the newest Presidential and American Innovation dollars, National Park quarters, bullion coins, and other United States Mint products. More than 25,000 prices in multiple grades. Easy-to-follow coin-grading instructions. Coins and tokens from the 1600s to today. Historical information. Hundreds of detailed, actual-size photos. How to start a coin collection. Detailed mintage records, and much more