Meiji Ginza Curry Showa 1,000 Yen Notes

Meiji is holding a unique promotion for their Ginza Curry line, which requires a bit of explanation. All Japanese are familiar with the Western system for numbering years and it is used frequently here, but the traditional Japanese system involves counting the number of years into the current Emperor's reign, and each reign or era is given that emperor's posthumous title. The 64 years of Emperor Hirohito's reign are called the Showa Era and this is year 24 of the Heisei Era.

That brings me back to this promotion, where the first prize for 200 people is 3,000 yen, not much, but is in the form of the three different 1,000 yen notes issued during the Showa Era. The second place prize is also three 1,000 yen notes (for 2,800 people), but all in the form of the only note issued during the current era. Same face value but the older notes are obviously worth more. Not sure how much the old notes are worth, but feel certain lots of people would like to have a set to show friends if nothing else. Must have been interesting to sit in on the brain storming session that came up with this promotion.

Photo is a web capture for explanatory purposes, copyright belongs to the company.