RYUKYUS: Sho Tai, 1848-1879, AE 125 mon (32.52g), Isonohama Mint, H-6.29, JNDA-138.2, han shu on reverse, seal script, cast 1862-65, VF-EF. The half shu denomination was a round coin with a square hole introduced alongside the oblong 100 mon by Satsuma, which ordered it to circulate at the value of 248 mon despite it weighing only 10 to 12 times the weight of a single mon coin. The word shu is a Japanese unit of measurement used with gold currency, indicating that the Satsuma government was trying to fix the exchange rate between the copper mon coins and gold currency such as the koban. Officially, 32 half shu coins would have the value of one ryo, though this conversion rate seems unlikely to have occurred in practice. The production of these coins was set up by Daimyo Shimazu Nariakira in order to rebuild Satsuma's economy; in total, around one million ryo worth of Ryukyuan coins were minted from 1862 to 1865.

Estimate: USD 100 - 150