Japanese Coins... Took The Plunge!

Will have to double check what all I need but will keep you in mind good sir! Keep us updated on what you get I always wondered how the "2+ pounds" sort of listings turn out for the people who buy them.

I keep a lookout every once in a while on graded early Japan copper. A couple awesome deals I found were here. Also I have compromised to get my two Meiji Yen coins as problem ones. One with a small hole and the other possibly cleaned but just went cheaper than most I see on sale. Keep a watchful eye and deals with find you! :)

https://goccf.com/t/246244&SearchTerms=japan

Got them in the mail yesterday! I was able to sort them by type and will go through to cherry pick as time allows. Most of the coins were aluminum or zinc, so there were a LOT of coins for that 2.2 pounds!

Here is a readout of what was included, in order of most to least:

50 sen, small type 1947-48 (probably 75+, grades F to XF)

10 sen, 1944 zinc type (50+)

10 sen, 1940-43 aluminum type (25-50)

10 sen, post-war aluminum 1945-46 (30+)

5 sen, post-war aluminum type 1945-46 (30+)

1 sen, imperial crest bronze Taisho/Showa (25+)

1 sen, bird design aluminum 1938-40 (25+)

1 sen, Mt Fuji aluminum 1941-43 (25+)

5 sen, aluminum war type 1941-43 (20+)

1 sen, 1944 zinc type (20+ and most ruined by zinc rot)

1 yen, 1949 bronze type (20+)

10 yen, Taisho/Showa sacred mirror type (10+)

1 sen, Meiji dragon (5-10)

5 sen, 1944 zinc (5)

1 sen, bird design large bronze 1938 (4)

1/2 sen, Meiji dragon (3)

5 yen, pigeon/ temple design 1948-49 (3)

10 sen, bronze waves design (3)

10 sen, holed nickel early WWII (3)

50 sen, large bronze 1937 (3)

5 sen, bronze waves design (2)

5 sen, WWII zinc 1944 (2)

5 sen, Taisho/Showa sacred mirror (2)

2 sen, Meiji dragon (1)

1 sen, Taisho rising sun (beautiful chocolate toned XF/AU)

Lot also contained a handful (10ish) of 1 and 4 mon coins, one that I need to work to ID, and a French IndoChina 1/4 cent.

So between this lot and the coins I already have, I believe I have an *entire* type coin set of Showa 1926-1989 (excluding commemoratives and patterns) and a good chunk of Meiji and Taisho. Now to sell the duplicates to have fodder for the silver

The 1945-1950 coinage seems to be tricky. They all have high (100M+) mintages, and each design was in place for only 1-3 years before being pulled and replaced. They do not circulate and will never show up in a "foreign exchange" lot, and hardcore collectors of Japanese coins don't really collect them.

The zinc coins I think will be some real sleepers for the series. Based on the level of zinc rot, I think that preserved specimens may command some real premiums in another few decades. I'll post some pictures--the one sen coins are so ugly that I could sell them as "Salvaged from a crashed Zero in the Pacific" on ebay.

Right. According to Numista, 1 sen made in late 1943 were .1g lighter. I wasn't aware that they were "scarce" per se, but was going to see if I had any in the lot.

At any rate, the seller knows their Japanese coins, so I assume they have already been searched thoroughly. I suppose there is always room for an error however.

I made this site a long time ago - back in 2009 (!) when my design skills were absolute mediocre. That said, it has the important information of the aluminum coins that I am talking about.

http://gxseries.com/numis/japantype...e_modern.htm

Take note of the various weight variety of the coins struck in between 1939 to 1943.

This is a variety that is often missed. I believe this came from a junk lot as it was terribly scratched.



And this is the normal variety:



The key difference is the stroke of the number "4". The left stroke in the number 4 is a straight line instead of a square like stroke.

january - I've made a digital Japan type set album a while back. As mentioned, that was designed more than 6 years ago and the quality is just not there. I was supposed to update a while back but just have too many fields to tackle. I've supposedly a fair bit of Soviet coinage as well but never got around to presenting what I have (!)

For some reason I cannot post a direct link due to copyright reasons but I am the one who made it and do own the copyright. I do own all of the coins in it as well!

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ne...sent.265635/

Otherwise you can google " Japan type set (1870 - Present) by gxseries " and it might be within the first few links.

You can check both links out for reference. Other albums may be of interest such as the Soviet type set album. All I know is that it will be very hard to outdo the Japan type set album design.