Japanese gold

Pedzola

Saw one of these for what seemed like a good deal relative to the gold price and decided to pull the trigger. Very different from the rest of my collection, basically an interesting bullion piece for me (.578 agw).

1993 50k Yen, commemorates the wedding of then crown prince (now emperor) Naruhito.

Was hesitant at first since I know nearly zip about these, but did my research and was able to match the coin to the NGC image so pretty certain it is at least real.

There are several other modern Japanese gold coins, apparently one particular issue was highly counterfeited in the 80's.

Anybody collect these? (Sorry its not a PCGS coin!) Some of the designs are pretty interesting.

Stork

There was one that was suspected of being 'highly counterfeited'. As for the originally suspected fakes...here is a follow up article, and as far as I know no public comment. https://nytimes.com/1992/05/20/business/numismatic-mystery-a-new-turn-in-the-case-of-the-chrysanthemum-coins.html

edited to add: I forgot this link (I'd posted these over on CT a few years ago). This site asserts the dealer was made whole in the end. Perhaps part of the settlement was to not talk about it. Anyway, the coin currently on the page is not the coin in question, but the notes are there.
https://taxfreegold.co.uk/japanchrysanthemumcoinsaffair.html

In any case, it was the 1986 100K yen coin, and as the face value exceeded the gold, the idea was that fakes were made to play the arbitrage. But were they fake? Lawsuit (a settled lawsuit) without a public answer makes you wonder.

In any case, any coin can be faked, but no reason to suspect it of this one.

And yes, I collect them, though I don't have an MS version of the 1993 Wedding.

Pedzola

Stork thanks for the additional info. I did some reading on the 1986 coin which is what I was referring to of course.

Your proof looks great! The surface on my ms coin is interesting, it shows up in pictures as sort of a dusty appearance. I'm not sure how to describe it except that it has a lot of very small pockmarks. Assume others in this "series" have similar surface? How would you describe it?

Stork

Good question and I'm not sure exactly what you are seeing. Plus, I've never seen the 1993 in an MS quality.

Like the Britannias or US Silver Eagles, the dies (and presumably the planchet prep) is likely to be much different, which might account for what you are seeing. If there are some pockmarks then either they are small enough to still qualify for 69 level bullion grading (and gold grading does seem a bit 'looser' given the metal which I've seen for non-bullion at both big TPGs), or if there is indeed a problem with the coin.

Slabs and coins can be faked. Did you look up the cert # at NGC? I just tried and the feature is down. I would just compare your coin to theirs, hopefully there is a photo but that is a newer style label so will hope so.

If you can get a better shot I'd like to see the coin better.

I do have a couple others though. Sorry about the inconsistent styles, the photos were done at very different times.

Pedzola

The image from NGC isnt great but I was able to confirm a couple of unique marks to the image. I am pretty confident it matches the ngc cert image, and also i have seen other pics online indicating the same peculiar finish.

Maybe pockmark was the wrong term... this picture shows the texture, but in hand it looks more like a lot of tiny pinhead divots.

Its really hard to capture in images.

[Not my image, found w/ google]

Pedzola

Just took these with a macro lens on my cell phone, best i can do.

These are the very poor ngc cert pictures.

Pedzola

You can see 2 "defects" on the coin that also appear innl the cert images. On the central flower on the reverse, there is a mark in the center-left bottom petal that appears on my image and the cert image. Also the marks on the bottom front wing can just barely make them out on the ngc cert image.

So to me this is a pretty unique finish for a gold coin, havent seen this before. I am pretty confident because of those marks that this is the original authentic ngc certified coin.

But lastly because of those same marks i would think this would go 68 instead. Maybe they are just considered part of the unique finish on this coin.

Stork

NGC's photos are not glamour shots that's for sure...but they are there to do exactly what you did...confirm the ID. I see what you mean, I'm guessing that is just the 'correct' finish for the MS version. Japanese commems really were one of the things that stimulated my interest in coin collecting as an adult.

Downtown1974

Very nice! I have always had a soft spot for world gold. Some countries put out beautiful designs...like little pieces of art. I’ve always considered raw, old world gold such as pesos, francs, sovereigns, etc...the sleeper for gold bullion collectors. Very plentiful and no premiums attached to them. Most of the modern stuff does carry significant premiums however.