200 Mon 'Tosa-tsūhō'

Tosa Domain — the feudal han covering much of present-day Kōchi Prefecture on Shikoku — issued this piece under emergency authorization as the Tokugawa shogunate's grip on monetary policy loosened in the early 1860s. The political climate in Tosa at the time was extraordinarily volatile; the domain was simultaneously managing radical sonnō jōi factions and attempting to maintain economic function as national trade disruptions drove copper coinage into short supply. Domain-issued currency of this type filled a genuine gap rather than serving any symbolic purpose.

The 200 mon denomination was unusually high for copper domain coinage, pointing to inflationary pressure rather than administrative ambition. Tosa would be absorbed into the Meiji government just five years after this issue.