50 Mon 'Mito Torasen'

Mito Domain issued this emergency coinage in the final months of the Tokugawa shogunate, as domain finances collapsed under the weight of factional civil conflict — Mito was uniquely torn between loyalist and radical sonnō jōi factions in a way that devastated its administration. The "Torasen" name derives from the tiger (tora), a reference embedded in the coin's classification rather than its administration.

By 1867, Mito's internal strife had already produced the Tenguto rebellion and the near-destruction of the domain's governing structure. This issue circulated in an economy already anticipating the Meiji transition that would abolish domain currencies entirely within a few years.