In this period, as the Tokugawa shogunate’s authority waned and poor rice harvests spread famine, shortages of gold, silver, and copper hampered coinage. To counter inflation caused by resource scarcity, the shogunate recalled and reminted circulating coins, issuing currency whose face value exceeded its intrinsic metal value. As a result, the currency depreciated and inflation accelerated. These coins came to symbolize the turmoil of the late Edo period (Bakumatsu) and the shogunate’s decline.