Japan 500 Silver Momme 1730

Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1867, Japan didn't have a "national" paper currency - each clan in the Shogunate made it's own. These notes are known as "hansatsu", or clan paper money. Here's a good site for general background info.

I can't read Japanese proper, but I can make out the denomination on your note. It's the four bold, black characters inside the central rectangle, on the left-hand-side picture. It says, from top to bottom, "silver 5 hundred mon". The "mon" was the Japanese cash-style coin, and not made of silver - it's use here is confusing, unless it's supposed to be an abbreviation of "monme", an alternate spelling of "momme".

The momme/monme is a Japanese unit of weight, equalling 3.75 grams; 500 momme is a lot of silver, over 1.8 kg or the equivalent of 70 silver dollars. I assume the picture at top right is supposed to represent this: five jars (of silver?), sitting on an ornate table.

You can look here too: http://www.yogoro.org/kyoho.htm This site is in Polish, but you can easily navigate it and find your note. I linked to the page - so scroll down a tad more than half way and you'll see notes very much like yours.

If you want to translate the text, you can use www.poltran.com