50 Sen - Shōwa Pattern

Pattern coinage from 1927 Japan sits in a peculiar administrative moment: the Finance Ministry was actively debating whether to abandon silver for subsidiary coinage altogether, and several experimental compositions were struck to test public and official tolerance for base-metal alternatives. This brass 50 sen is almost certainly a product of that evaluation process at the Osaka Mint.

The silver 50 sen type it was meant to replace had already seen its silver content reduced once. Brass never advanced to circulation — Japan retained silver for the 50 sen until wartime pressures finally forced the switch to aluminum in 1938.