When the Tokugawa era ended and the Meiji Restoration began, Japanese coins became standardized. These new coins were very different from those of the Tokugawa era. Because they were manufactured using Western machinery, they were smaller, round, and identical. The Government titled this coinage 'yen,' meaning "small round object." Initiated by the New Currency Act of 1871, these coinage changes reflected a more politically, socially, and economically unified Japan.

Kanji on these coins read "大日本," or "Greater Japan." For the first time in Japanese history, coin origins were from a Greater Japan, rather than a province, community, or specific family. As the Meiji Restoration consolidated the political and social structures of Japan, Meiji coins reflected the vision the Imperial government had for a more unified, modernized nation.