File:Ryūkyū Tsūhō (½ Shu) - Dr. Luke Roberts 02.jpg

The 100 mon Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou pictured below was first manufactured in Kagoshima (Satsuma domain) 1863 for circulation within the Ryuukyuus and in Satsuma domain itself. Like the Tenpou Tsuuhou upon which it was modeled, its face value was 100 mon but its weight was merely 6 to 7 times that of a 1 mon coin. Furthermore, even though the face value was 100 mon the Satsuma government ordered that it circulate at the value of 124 mon (go figure!). This made it a profitable coin to manufacture, but was not well received in circulation. The round Hanshuu Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou was ordered to circulate at the value of 248 mon, or twice the value of the 100 mon coin. However it weighed merely 8 monme or about 10 to 12 times the weight of the average one mon coin. Han means "half" and "shu" is a gold currency weight. Therefore the Satsuma government was trying to command an exchange rate between copper currency and gold currency. Normally the relative exhange rates of silver, gold and copper currencies were unstable thoroughut Japan despite government attempts to decree them into one currency system. Thus although at one half shu this coin should have circulated at 32 coins per gold ryou (one koban coin), it is unlikely that it really did so. source: Nihon Ginkou Chousakyoku ed., Zuroku Nihon no kahei, vol. 4 (Tokyo: Touyou Keizai Shinpousha, 1973), pp. 319-322 100 mon Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou front is written Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou 1863 33mm wide x 49mm tall x 2mm thick   This coin is rather beat up as if it has survived a fire. The English bombarded and destroyed most of Kagoshima, the castle town of Satsuma, in August of 1863 in an attempt to extract an indemnity for an Englishman murdered by a Satsuma samurai in 1862. The mint which produced this coin was burnt in the ensuing fire. I wonder whether this coin were dug from the ruins.  

100 mon Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou back is written Touhyaku or "worth 100"

Hanshu Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou front is written Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou in seal script 1863 42.5mm wide x 3mm thick

Hanshu Ryuukyuu Tsuuhou verso