File:Unknown Iron Kan'ei Tsuuhou - Dr. Luke Roberts 01.png

English: Unknown Iron Kan'ei Tsuuhou, with private mintmark? The style of this coin's front inscription is like a Sendai Ishinomaki iron coin. However the coin is smaller than official coins and is of very rough manufacture. It is probably a privately made counterfeit such as were common in the Nanbu region (Morioka Prefecture) of northern Japan. Ironworkers were common in that region and after the government began officially minting iron coins in the 1740s the iron workers often made their own spending money (!) in miniature foundries in the hills. The most interesting thing about this coin is the faint mintmark on the back. The mark is behind the "tsuu" character which is generally unknown in Japanese coins. Furthermore the mark is unreadable. It is either a private mark or a poor transcription of an official mintmark such as the "sen" of Sendai coins. Sometimes it even looks like a Ch'ing Manchu mintmark to me. The mark is real but faint. I needed to take a picture in angled sunlight for the mark to appear clearly. 21mm wide x 1.5mm thick.