Japan 1 and 2 Shu 1853 to 1859

Neat coin, Louis. These were minted from bars of silver during the Shogun (military leader) rulership of Japan between 1787 and 1867. There are 1 shu and 2 shu denominations, annotated using the numerals that look like horizontal bars at the top of the front side of the coin. Our secondary picture shows a 2 shu. These coins are known as 'hammered coins' because the process used to make them involved hammers (big hammers) and handheld dies. Much of the time the minter did not get the dies lined up very well, so some of the pattern gets lost, as shown in our photos.

There are other rectangular coins from Japan which look similar, but not identical, to our photos. This page covers only coins that look like the photos.

The 2 shu in the secondary picture comes from Stack's Bowers and Ponterio where it sold in 2012 for $850 US dollars. That gives you and idea of value for 2 shu coins.

However, 1 shu coins are much more common and sell for much less than 2 shu coins. Typical catalog values are:

1 SHU (shown at angles in our primary picture)
worn: $15 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: $25
well preserved: $40
fully uncirculated: $200

As always on CoinQuest, these are very approximate values and they must be interpreted using the information on our Terminology page.

The coin in the primary picture comes from a discussion thread over at CoinCommunity.
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