Ryukyuan mon

The Ryukyuan mon (琉球文, Ryūkyū mon, Okinawan: Ruuchuu mun) was the currency of the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1454 to 1879, when the kingdom was annexed by the Empire of Japan and the currency was replaced by the Japanese yen. The Chinese character for mon is , which was widely used in the Chinese-character cultural sphere, e.g. Chinese wén, Vietnamese văn, and Korean mun. The Ryukyuans produced their own coins until the 15th century, but became dependent on Chinese coins until the 19th century when they briefly minted their own coins again. From 1862 the minting was outsourced to Kagoshima City, Satsuma Domain and were based on the Japanese mon (specifically on the "Kan'ei Tsūhō" copper coins). All of the Kagoshima-minted coins bear the phrase "Ryūkyū Tsūhō" () (circulating treasure of Ryukyu); this phrase was written in Seal script on the half shu (248 mon) coin. Despite the annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879, these coins continued to circulate within Okinawa Prefecture well into the 1880's as the Ryukyuans were initially unwilling to use Japanese yen coins.

The first Ryukyuan coins to circulate were the Taise Tsūhō (大世通寳) in 1454 under the reign of King Shō Taikyū; the second were the Sekō Tsūhō (世高通寳) which were first minted in 1461 under the reign of King Shō Toku. Though the Taise Tsūhō are considered the oldest Ryukyuan coins, there are possibilities that an older version of the Chūzan Tsūhō (中山通寳) was cast between 1321 and 1395 by the Kingdom of Chūzan, though these possible coins should not be confused with a later Chūzan Tsūhō cast under King Shō Kō. Both the Taise Tsūhō and Sekō Tsūhō were modelled after the Ming dynasty Eiraku Tsūhō (永樂通寳), a coin manufactured en masse for foreign trade. Because copper shrinks when it cools, the Sekō Tsūhō was smaller than the Chinese Eiraku Tsūhō. 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.

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