Depicts Dōtaku discovered from the Kamoiwakura Remains in Unnan City. State name above, value below.

Dōtaku are Japanese bells smelted from relatively thin bronze and richly decorated. Dotaku were used for about 400 years, between the second century B.C. and the second century C.E. (corresponding to the end of the Yayoi era). They were richly decorated with patterns representing nature and animals, among which the dragonfly, praying mantis and spider are featured. According to Japanese folklore, dōtaku were used as emergency bells (such as a watch tower’s bell); intended especially in cases of invasion, particularly invaders from the Korean peninsula. When sentinels spotted invaders, they loudly rang the dōtaku as an alarm, so that people could hide themselves or their possession, and to alert warriors to prepare themselves to repel the enemy.

The inner section shows an image of an old Japanese coin (old cast Mon coin) where Kanji letters mean “Local Autonomy”. Latent image technology is applied to the centre of the coin to make letters of “47″ representing the number of prefectures in Japan, and “60″ representing the 60th Anniversary of Enforcement of the Local Autonomy Law appear alternately when viewed from different angles.

The outer ring of the coin depicts the inscription in English above, value in English and the year of issue in Kanji below.

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana. The date begins with the symbols for the era name Heisei (平成), followed by the era year, and ends with the symbol for year (年).