Any Collectors Live In Or Been To Japan?

gxseries: I'm sure I'd have done the same! It is a beautiful collection...congrats!

I found the shop! The owner was extremely nice. Despite the language barrier between us, I was able to figure out that he didn't have anything like the Dansco Japan Type Set Album, unfortunately. He had a lot of really interesting coins in stock and I want to go back to browse a bit more when I have time. I did buy a 1993 Mint Set:

And he also gave me a ¥500 World Cup commemorative coin as change! The shop was a great find and I hope to stop in regularly during my time living here.

Very cool! What are you doing in Japan? I was pretty much thinking I would only be able to collect from change, but I started playing around with the JNDA website and google translating the pages instead of just looking at the much more limited English version...found a lot more shops, including the one here in Tokushima that I went to yesterday. Very cool that you've been able to find a shop also! I know nothing about the prefectural coins...I'll have to look into that.

Have you found a type set album? I know they exist...not just the Dansco one. I was hoping he would have something like that in stock, but the closest was a book with a page each for the coins by year. I could do that, but it's not really what I wanted so I passed for now.

Anyway, thanks for the reply! Hope you're enjoying Okinawa. I want to visit there someday. It looks like a beautiful place!

That's really cool gxseries! I stumbled upon a baseball card shop my first time in Tokyo...that was fun...but never found a coin shop. I did see in my research to find the one out here that there's supposed to be a nice coin shop in Osaka. That's pretty much the closest really huge city to us, though it's still 3hrs away. We don't go often, but next time we're there, I want to check it out.

The shop here had some of the small silver bar/coins and a lot of older stuff, but I had no idea what I was really looking for this time...just wanted to make sure I could find the place. Eventually I'll get some sort of list together of what I want and just start working on that slowly when I have free time to browse the shop, and extra money to drop :)

When I lived in Japan in 2000, I found a 500 yen commemorative, with cranes, like the one in bwbollom's post above, in change. I showed it to many Japanese friends who had never seen one before. I kept it as a pocket piece until I lost it. I ended up finding another on ebay to put away in my collection. I really like the design of that coin.

I'm living in Yokohama, and am interested in starting a small collection of Japanese coins. I have never seen a local coin shop here, but I will be going to the Tokyo International Coin Convention in early May, where hopefully I'll find some nice, reasonably priced coins to start of my Japanese coin collection.

Also, if you happen to see anything like a Dansco Japanese Type Set album at the convention, please let me know. It doesn't have to be Dansco specifically, that's just what I'm used to. I'd just really like to find a nice album to display my Japanese coins and the owner of the local shop did not have any info on one other than the clear plastic generic kind. Thanks and have fun!

That's kind of crazy! I just found my first reeded edge 10 yen today as well...from change at Hotto Motto. I was about to put the handful of coins in my little coin pouch and noticed the edge. I showed my wife and told her that if she sees any like that in the future to let me know. It's pretty beat up, but oh well. The really crazy part is that I think mine is a 1952 also! If I'm reading it correctly, it's Showa 27:

Congrats on your find! Sounds like a fun game with your daughter!

I'll have to look into the Osaka coin show. If I have to wait until next year, that's probably not a bad thing. I'm pretty broke at the moment, so if there was a show this month I'd be disappointed that I'd have to miss it. Thanks for the info! I'm looking forward to hearing about your convention experience!