Post Your Coins From Japan!

japan 1885 (Yr.28) 1 yen KMA25.3 26.96g 0.9000 38mm

Getting into the scarcer, pricier ones now:

20 sen 1870, the first year of modern decimal coinage



Finally bit the bullet and bought a 1 yen coin, should be here any day!

Finally found a 10 mon coin in good shape and at a price I could stomach:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japan-Edo-P...7943?txnId=0



Those really don't show up very often, and never go cheap. They were only made for a few months during 1708-09 during the reign of Hoei, and were supposedly to circulate at par with the small precious metal coins then in circulation, despite having only a fraction of the intrinsic value. After a few months of trying to force the populace to use this coin, the government threw in the towel and recalled them. Ironically the reverse characters in incuse circles read "for the everlasting use of the world". Also note the size--very nearly as large as an Ike dollar!

Can't wait to have this one in hand!

1945 sen, made of baked red clay. These were contracted out to a private firm and apparently circulated "for a few days" before the end of WWII.

This formally wraps up my set of "Showa circulating coinage", at least until I win the lottery and have enough cash to get the early gold issues. When I find a good and reasonably priced Meiji sunburst sen, and work up the guts to spring for the 1870 dragon 5 sen ($100+) and the 1870 yen ($500+) I will have completed my Japanese circulating non-gold type set!

Picked up a "face value" lot on ebay... looked to be a jumble of 50 and 100 yen coins, but I spotted a couple Okinawa Expo, Epo '70, and some upgrades I needed for my set.

Yeah, turns out it was some guy liquidating an estate collection. There were a lot of amazing things in there, but this is my favorite:



Complete set of both old style 50 yen, including the key date S35 (1960)in a very solid AU!

The S55 50 yen at the bottom I strongly suspect is from a mint set; it has flashy fields, squared off rims, and zero evidence of ghosting, which is a major problem with the series.

And icing on the cake; I paid $56 for "over 5500 yen" and the lot actually contained 7500 yen.

Just a two year type, 1957-8 (the example shown is a '58}. Perhaps somebody can authoritatively say whether the avaian imagery is supposed to represent a phoenix or a peacock?

That's one of my favorite designs, too!

I honestly have no clue. I have always seen it listed as a phoenix in catalogs.

I dont understand this face of the coin. Is it supposed to be a dragon with a snake in its foot / claw? I cant interpret the foot and tail area.. Anyone interpret the tail section? The scene is an odd one I cant visualize in my mind. Anyone here help me put this together in my head? thx.