JAPAN: Keio, 1865-1868, AE 50 mon (11.32g), Hosogaya mint in Mito, Hitachi Province, H-7.4, JNDA-139.4, type known as a Mito Tora-sen (Mito Tiger Coin), cast in bronze, VF-EF. Legend in seal script translates as "Enrich the Country and Strengthen the Military." Cast at the Hosogaya Mito, Hitachi Province (present day Ibaraki-ken). The original, cast in 1864 in iron, was a local emergency coin used to pay the workmen at the financially troubled copper-coin mint in Mito. In 1867 copper-alloy coins were cast supposedly from bronze cannon which the daimyo (local feudal lord) had made out of temple bells with which to repel the western barbarians. From an old Japanese Collection formed in the 1930s.
Estimate: USD 150 - 250