1888 Japan Yen, Real Or Not?

The seller (at a garage sale actually!) Was nice enough to weigh it and on his scale (rounds to nearest gram) it came out to 27 which is right about where it should be, it also makes the silver sound.

Well figured I would buy it. It may be holed, but at least seemed to be genuine with it sounding like silver, looking real, and weighing about spot on and with really nice details. Got it for $30!:D These on ebay have been in the range of $80-110 for the same details without holes so I don't think that was too bad a deal! Thanks for the comment KC&CO!

When ever I see a high grade coin with a hole drilled in it, I wonder why the hole was put there.

There are two primary reasons, first to allow the coin to be suspended as jewelry and second as a way to cancel it and stop circulation. So I look for two clues when I see a hole: What would the coin look like if suspended from the hole and has the edge of the been smoothed out by wear (primarily along the top side).

In this case the hole is located in the correct area for obverse suspension but the edges are sharp.

Then I look for possible clues to forgery. The coin has wide margins and what may be a rounded corner. Before I would indicate one way or the other if the coin is genuine or not I would want to see the edge reeds.