1914 Japanese 1 Yen... Fake Or Just Different?

Sorry here I tried getting better pics of just the coin in question. Hope these are better.

Sorry Bob, but what does it mean by corners when talking about a coin? First I have heard of it but definitely wanting to know more!

Overall the design looks good to me. I recently handled a nice 1914 and comparing to my photos (see below) the large dots are OK. There is some variation in denticles, though most seem to have the more refined denticles as seen below and on your 1888 coin. I would check weight, ring test, and check rims as Bob suggests.





Edit: Must have posted at about the same time. I see you already checked the weight and did a ring test. Great minds think alike!

At first appearance it looks odd but after a good look - I'm certain it's the angle of the photo. It looks ok to me as well. I thought I had 1914 yen photographed as well but turns out I forgot to upload mine.

This is the only Taisho silver yen that was struck and it's one of those coins that you really want to fill your coin album type set. This is also an interesting coin as it was a coin struck for overseas market and was never intended to be circulated in Japan.

If you can post a close-up of the edge reeds it may be enlightening.

Regarding the corners of a typical Morgan dollar - the shape is established by the shape of the coining chamber. The truncated corners will show NO EVIDENCE of being ground down to conceal the split tails. Also on the reeds produced from genuine reeded collars there will be no seam at the top center of the reed. The seam comes about when the ring die cuts the reeds. Metal curves inward from both sides of the depression being cut. The metal which is the raised reed has a seam down the center. This seam will show even if the edge is ground or polished.

A simple 30x magnification should show if the seam is present.

That is not really clear enough.

Most jewelers have binocular 30X scopes to check diamonds for chips cracks and inclusions. That would work.

Below is a 30x enlargement of the reeds on the edge of a typical Chinese forgery. At the top of the picture is the corner grind - it shows as triangular segments at the ends of the reeds. These triangles show parallel scratches associated with power grinding and not with wear.

The second feature to observe are the tops of the reeds that clearly show the center seam where metal from the grooves on each side of the reed is pushed up to create the raised reed. In this case the forger has ground the tops of all the reeds to try to disguise the fact it is faked.



This next image shows two Chinese forgeries with open top seams in the reeds because the forger did not take the time and effort to edge grind. The coins are 1910 British Trade dollars made in the 1980s.




The following schematic drawing is a representation of why the forgeries need to be ground to remove sharp metal spurs created by the edging method.



The final picture below shows a coin that was driven through the ring die at an angle so that some of the reeds are actually NOT at a right angle (90 degrees) to the faces. Notice the clear split top reeds in this case. The coin is a forged US $ 5 coin.

How much lite was the coin? Given the wear level, I would about 0.2 grams loss (net 26.76 grams) more or less should be about right. I am very curious to see what the LCS considers correct in terms of weight loss.

I am of the opinion that based on the seller being aspen coins that it is likely genuine, but one of the things I always point out is it is VERY EASY TO OVERESTIMATE the amount of weight loss due to wear.

Coins, in the days when they contained valuable metal, were made in low relief so that a 5% reduction in wear could not be missed. In fact most monetary policy had a minimum circulating weight. The weight varied but in most cases a figure of about 95% was employed. Coins below that weight were deemed unfit for circulation because their metal content was too low.

The Yen was a Trade dollar - new they weighed 26.96 grams. To reach a non-circulating weight level a yen would be worn to AG levels and weigh 25.61 grams. The weight loss of 1.35 grams may seem trivial today but was very critical then.

I mention this to try to inform the average collector that it is human nature to OVERESTIMATE the natural loss of weight due to wear. Many collectors will accept a 24 gram dollar coin as about right. Some will go even lower!