noun
one sen; one-hundredth of a yen; small amount of money
Historical currency unit (1/100 yen), now obsolete. Often used figuratively to mean a trivial sum, as in 'not a single sen'.
昔は一銭で駄菓子が買えた。
In the old days, you could buy cheap sweets for one sen.
彼は一銭も払わなかった。
He didn't pay a single sen.
The modern yen unit; 一銭 is a historical subunit (1/100 yen) no longer in circulation.
An even older Edo-period coin; 一銭 is from the Meiji era onward.
Compound of 一 (one) and 銭 (sen, a hundredth of a yen). The sen was introduced in the Meiji period and withdrawn from circulation in 1953.