Noonan Newps...overseas buying can be a bit of an adventure, but opens things up a bit.
Stork
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With Numisbid and Sixbid making it easier to find things, plus easier ways to pay, well it can be irresistible.
Customs is usually not too difficult but can occasionally make for adventures. Fedex is usually helpful with clearance and making sure the paperwork gets done in a timely fashion. And sometimes, well no. I've gotten plenty of things in 24 hours from Tokyo. This time it was over a week from London.
Whoever packed it up labeled it base metal tokens. Well, only one thing to call a token, and the other was a book in 7 parts which was titled "Gold and Silver Coins" in the listing. Needless to say, customs was confused.
So, my 'base metal token': a pretty sweet Akita 4 momme/6 bu. 17.2 grams of some purity of silver (I honestly have no idea). Produced in 1863. And pretty cool. Has a bit of residue on it but this one was in as good shape as I could have hoped with the photos. Some of these are quite banged up and scrubbed. This one can be found in the JNDA and they are starting to get slabbed more frequently by our hosts.
https://sixbid.com/en/noonans/9953/-/8562636/the-herman-selig-collection-part
The other thing I won, well I did explain that despite the title of 'silver and gold' and the description as 'base metal', the actual commodity involved was paper 
.
This is an adequate copy of the Kin Gin Zuroku by Kondo Morishige, who was a librarian/official. This was a compendium or record of the various local coinages from the pre-Edo/feudal eras written in 1810 (though published apparently in 1875). This in fact is a source cited by PCGS when slabbing, basically by page number. The coins are called 'fantasies' which is a bit of a misnomer. Maybe not produced by a central government, but by the local lords, and records are scarce which makes it more challenging.
In any case, I have a pdf copy which is fine, but with the exchange rates and a decent appearing copy showing up at Noonan's, well it was worth a shot. The set nicely came with a non-original slip cover which was cool. I've got the link to the auction (the photographer forgot that in 1810 reading was right to left and books opened opposite).
https://sixbid.com/en/noonans/9953/-/8562650/numismatic-books-numismatic-books-kondo-m
In any case, it's pretty cool that PCGS has entered this arena, I don't care about 'grade' so much as attributions though I wish they'd drop the 'fantasy' word. Shoot I have one that is a plate of silver bullion and calling it fantasy silver plate makes it sound like it's quite the fake.
As for the book, well here is a pdf that can be downloaded, which surely should have been enough for me. But I like books.
https://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko30/bunko30_f0028/://
Comments
Very, very, nice acquisitions!!!
As for the “fantasy” label, you should speak with some specialist dealers who can either help lobby PCGS to correct, or maybe explain why that label is correct (in case there’s something we’re missing).
Let me know, @Stork, if you want me to find out who are some of the specialist dealers in that area. (Btw, Chris at Atlas speaks Japanese so maybe you and he have common interest?)
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
I never noticed the auctioneer’s photo has the books upside down!
Cool books!
This happens a lot with coins. You can usually tell the cataloguer knows which way is up, but the photographer doesn't.
Nice condition!