Japan's money economy began earlier than textbooks have described, archaeologists said Tuesday in unveiling 33 bronze coins from the late seventh century recently unearthed in the village of Asuka, Nara Prefecture.
According to the Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, the coins, discovered last August at the Asukaike Ruins in Asuka, are older than the Wado Kaichin coins first minted in 708, thus bumping them from the archaeological record books as the nation's first circulated money.
The bronze coins, whose existence has been known for some time, are called Fuhonsen, the name of a charm believed used during the Nara Period (710-784).