The koban (小判, alternately ōban) was a Japanese oval gold coin in Edo period feudal Japan, equal to ten ryō, another early Japanese monetary unit (a ryō can be imagined as worth a thousand dollars, although the value of the coin, like the value of the dollar, varied considerably).

The Keichō koban, a gold piece, contained about one ryō of gold, so that koban carried a face value of one ryō. However, successive mintings of the koban had varying (usually diminishing) amounts of gold. As a result, the ryō as a unit of weight of gold and the ryō as the face value of the koban were no longer synonymous.

The Maneki Neko is often depicted holding a koban, though the koban most Maneki Neko hold is indicated to be worth ten million ryō.