Ryukyuan mon

The first mon coin to be minted in the Ryukyus was the '''''' (中山通寳), said to have been cast by the Kingdom of Chūzan sometime during the reign of King Satto (r. 1350–1395), before the unification of the island of Okinawa into the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1429. Only a dozen or so examples of this coin survive, and due to its scarcity, it is uncertain whether it was ever actually circulated. The first coins minted by the united Ryukyu Kingdom were ' (大世通寳) coins, produced in 1454 under King Shō Taikyū. Soon following this were ' (世高通寳) coins, which were first minted in 1461 under the reign of King Shō Toku. Both of these coins were designed by first taking Ming dynasty Yongle Tongbao (永樂通寳) coins, scraping off the characters , replacing them with either for Taise Tsūhō or for Sekō Tsūhō, and then using the result as a mother coin. Because copper shrinks when it cools, the Sekō Tsūhō was smaller than the Chinese Yongle Tongbao. The Sekō Tsūhō was originally cast to make up for a shortage of currency often attributed to reckless politics and high government expenditure, such as the expensive invasion of Kikai Island by King Shō Toku in the 1460s. After King Shō Toku was overthrown in a coup d'état, the Second Shō Dynasty rose to the throne. Under the dynasty's first king, Shō En (r. 1469–1476), the last coin to be minted by the Ryukyu Kingdom, the '''' (金圓世寳) was minted in 1470, albeit not in great amounts, as Ming dynasty coinage was more widely used. After this, the Ryukyu Kingdom stopped manufacturing their own mon coins and relied exclusively on imported Japanese mon and Chinese wén'' as the main currency of exchange. Below is a summary of the coins minted by the Kingdom of Chūzan and the Ryukyu Kingdom: Despite the small size of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Taise Tsūhō and Sekō Tsūhō coins are not uncommon, and have been known to be regularly found on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra due to the international nature of these coins and the success of Ryukyuan maritime trade. Kin'en Yohō coins are considerably less common, and Chūzan Tsūhō coins are incredibly rare. Aside from the Chūzan Tsūhō coin, which is mentioned in 17th-century records, == Ryūkyū Tsūhō (from 1862) ==

Starting in 1862, daimyō Shimazu Nariakira of Satsuma Domain ordered for the production of coinage known as Ryūkyū Tsūhō (琉球通宝, "Ryukyu Currency"). As the name suggests, the coins were ostensibly meant for circulation within the Ryukyu Kingdom, which was a vassal of Satsuma Domain. However, the coins were never actually introduced in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which continued to use Japanese and Chinese cash coins. Instead, the Ryūkyū Tsūhō coins were a means for Satsuma Domain to produce additional currency to combat its government deficit while circumventing the Tokugawa Shogunate's restriction on minting currency like the Tenpō Tsūhō, which could only legally be produced at the Edo Mint. These efforts were successful, and the Ryūkyū Tsūhō entered wide circulation not only in Satsuma, but also in Japan's other provinces soon after their production. In total, around one million ryō worth of Ryukyuan coins were minted from 1862 to 1865. The coins were released in two denominations, the first with a face value of 100 mon ( ryō), and the second with a face value of of a shu (125 mon, ryō). As these coins were minted in Satsuma Domain, they bear the mark of the katakana character "sa" () stamped on their edge. On the 100-mon coin, this can be found on the left and right (long) edges, while on the half-shu coin, it can be found on the edge just above the character 寳 hō on the left side of the obverse. 100-Mon Coin The 100-mon Ryūkyū Tsūhō was modeled after the official Japanese Tenpō Tsūhō () coin of the same denomination, being ellipse-shaped and having a square hole in its center. Its obverse has the words Ryūkyū Tsūhō (琉球通寳, "Ryukyu Currency"), and the reverse has tō hyaku (當百, "worth 100 [mon]"). The coin weighed 5 monme and 5 fun (equivalent to 20.6 grams), and it had dimensions of 49 mm by 32 mm. Like the Tenpō Tsūhō after which it was modeled, it was heavily debased when compared to 1-mon coins, being merely 6 to 7 times as heavy as a typical 1-mon coin. Despite its face value of 100 mon, Satsuma Domain ordered that it would circulate at the value of 124 mon, which made it a profitable coin to manufacture. == See also ==