Rin

A rin coin from 1873

The rin (Japanese: 厘) was a Japanese currency with a value equivalent to ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of a yen. It was established by Emperor Meiji, who introduced a currency system consisting of yen divided into 100 sen and 1000 rin early in his reign. The first coins of the denomination were non-circulated 1 rin patterns from 1869 that used the character "釐" instead of "厘". A ½ sen pattern piece with the value of 5 rin was then minted in 1870, but like the 1869 coin, it was not issued. The first 1 rin and ½ sen coins were put into circulation in 1873, and continued to be produced until 1892. A 5 rin piece with the same value as the earlier ½ sen coin was introduced in 1916, after a 5 rin pattern had already been made in 1899, and was issued until 1919. A 2 rin coin was proposed and minted in 1885, but was never put into circulation.

The Japanese yen lost much of its value during and after World War II, which made much of the smaller denominated currency, including the rin, virtually worthless. On December 31, 1953, the enforcement of the Small Currency Disposition and Fractional Rounding in Payments Act effectively demonetized all Japanese currency lower than one yen in value, which included the pieces denominated in rin.

References

• Japanese yen on the English Wikipedia
• 厘 on the Japanese (日本語) Wikipedia
• Numismatic Guaranty Corporation website