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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,968 |
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New Member
United States
3 Posts |
I recently found two Meiji-era coins in a dishful of other world coins that my paternal grandfather collected at one point in his life while cleaning out my grandparents' house (1897 10 Sen and 1898 50 Sen). Up until this point, I have collected US coins and think it would be a nice switch to start collecting Japanese coins and put together a type set. I was wondering if there were any reference books for the different varieties of Japanese coins? I've seen some PCGS/NGC coins where they detail the number of beads or rays on the earlier coins, but don't see that detailed in the version of the Standard Catalog of World Coins that I have. (I've seen the different types based on connected and separated Kanji though.) TIA for any help or advice fellow collectors have. Edited by Oolong
07/25/2022 7:33 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
The JNDA Catalog is probably the best one. Mostly in Japanese but it's reasonably good for the price.
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Moderator
 United States
34397 Posts |
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2233 Posts |
I wonder, are you going to only get the WWII and earlier coins or are you going to include post-war issues as well?
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Moderator
Australia
16810 Posts |
Most of the better reference works for Japanese coins will be in Japanese, since Japan itself is the primary driver of demand for Japanese coins.
Most Japanese coins have little or no Western script or even numerals on them, so there's a language barrier that makes it very difficult for the casual Westerner world coin collector to really "get into" Japanese coins. Much like the Chinese, Arabic, Greek and Russian series. The difference between the Japanese and those other series is that coin collecting is actually rather popular within Japan itself, and amongst the Japanese diaspora living abroad.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
For those that haven't got access to specialist books on the subject of deciphering Japanese coins,
the forewords of the Krause World Coin catalogs can help you out with the dating of Japanese coins.
In this regard, a Google search may prove to be very helpful as well.
Edited by sel_69l
07/26/2022 04:45 am
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New Member
United States
17 Posts |
There are a few English texts that discuss pre-Meiji Japanese coinage. Authors include Robert Jones and David Hartill. For Meiji and post-Meiji there is available since early 2021 in English "The Standard Catalog of Japanese Coins", prepared by the Zeus Coin Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. Of course this book has pre-Meiji too. You currently find it on ebay at https://www.ebay.com/itm/373886343460but it is also available from Clark Smith, Numismatics at https://www.coinvault.com/It is listed on Amazon, but perpetually out of stock. But a comment about listed values. If the values are based on the JNDA books mentioned by gxseries in the earlier post, it is my experience that prices in the USA are often lower, perhaps since demand in the USA is lower, and this could be true in other countries as well. As for completing a type set, there existed at one time a Dansco #7460. I have personally never seen for sale, but it is described quite nicely at https://www.starcityhomer.com/dansc...ype-set.html |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
570 Posts |
Just my personal opinion, but I would be cautious. The Japanese have been buying up Japanese coins and the market has become very frothy, or bubbly.
The 1870-1914 silver Yen has become the Japanese version of the US's Morgan Mania. Prices on those have gone to the moon even though NGC and PCGS have graded over 26,000 of them AU50 and higher, 20,000 of which graded MS60 and higher.
If you're just having fun and have the money to do so, then proceed as you wish. But if you're worried about future valuations, be cautious and maybe consider other world coins which are much more scarce and have much more attractive valuations. Again, just my personal opinion.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
I personally wouldn't recommend the dansco type set unless you got deep pockets. The Trade dollar coin alone is a 4 figure coin if you want an undamaged example Japanese coins were under appreciated until the last few years and prices have risen quite significantly. On the positive side, base metal and many smaller silver coins (not crowns) are still very very affordable My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. Edited by gxseries
07/29/2022 9:54 pm
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New Member
 United States
3 Posts |
Thanks to all of you for your responses and advice. Apologies for the late reply, I forgot about this post among some other things currently going on. I've noticed that many coins seem to be over-valued on sites like ebay so it makes sense that there's been an increase in the demand for coins as of late. This will definitely be a set I will be slowly working on for the next 40-50 years, especially when it comes to the crowns. What it will probably turn out to be is where I have the affordable coins, and maybe one or two of the more rare/expensive coins. However, that doesn't bother me too much. I do plan on collecting coins by year when it comes to the modern coinage and mint sets seem to be the way to go on that (though the 2010s seem to be quite overpriced as well at the moment). But I actually do have a handful of mint sets from the different trips I have made to Japan when visiting family, so I've unknowingly already made a start and have access to translators when it comes to the JNDA  Thank you again for all the responses! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3402 Posts |
 ... Quote:
...(1897 10 Sen and 1898 50 Sen).  Can you post pics (obverse/reverse) of the two coins? KK |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,968 |
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Posted 07/25/2022 7:55 pm
