My $8 dollar Japanese yen... a story to share
MSD61
Posts: 3,382 ✭
I got this today in the mail:
This was an ebay deal and I learned something from it. In my haste, and lack of knowledge in Japanese coins, I thought I was on to something really good. I know the seller made an error in listing the coin. It was listed as a Chinese coin and I knew it was not a Chinese coin but Japanese because of the crysanthmum on the reverse, okay I know something about Japanese coins so shoot me. Anyway, looking at this coin I saw the coin was dated Meiji 8 so I looked it up in Krause and was shocked at the number of these minted. I said to myself the seller must have made a mistake in the listing of this coin or did not know what it was.
The starting bid was $5 dollars USD. The seller was not from China but from Canada and could not believe my fortune and in haste bid on the coin thinking I was getting something wondeful. I won the coin for 5 dollars with 3 dollars shipping. But as I looked at the auction images closer and inspected more images of Japanese yen from this period I began to see differences in what I won to what other yen looked like.
The extra period after "900" was a tip off on the reverse along with the flames around the dragon. I looked at a number of yen from this period and did not see this on any of them and the flames around the dragon looked different. Second tip off was on the reverse. The wreath and crysanthmum were much smaller than on the original one Yens I had been looking at. And today when I received the coin I was confident that it was some type of Chinese fantasy coin. There is a rim inscription on the coin. I do not believe there are rim inscriptions on Japanese One Yen from any period. The inscription reads, "DA QING ZAO BI CHANG" and has Chinese characters and not Kanji. Anyway it was a learning experience and has peaked my interest in Japanese coins. Kinda funny in a way after spending alot of time in Japan when I could have picked up all the japanese coins I would have wanted....LOL!!!!
SO here's to my 5 Dollar dog of the year
Edit to add: This is a wonderful site for a quick reference to Japanese coins and dating check it out:
Japanese coins
This was an ebay deal and I learned something from it. In my haste, and lack of knowledge in Japanese coins, I thought I was on to something really good. I know the seller made an error in listing the coin. It was listed as a Chinese coin and I knew it was not a Chinese coin but Japanese because of the crysanthmum on the reverse, okay I know something about Japanese coins so shoot me. Anyway, looking at this coin I saw the coin was dated Meiji 8 so I looked it up in Krause and was shocked at the number of these minted. I said to myself the seller must have made a mistake in the listing of this coin or did not know what it was.
The starting bid was $5 dollars USD. The seller was not from China but from Canada and could not believe my fortune and in haste bid on the coin thinking I was getting something wondeful. I won the coin for 5 dollars with 3 dollars shipping. But as I looked at the auction images closer and inspected more images of Japanese yen from this period I began to see differences in what I won to what other yen looked like.
The extra period after "900" was a tip off on the reverse along with the flames around the dragon. I looked at a number of yen from this period and did not see this on any of them and the flames around the dragon looked different. Second tip off was on the reverse. The wreath and crysanthmum were much smaller than on the original one Yens I had been looking at. And today when I received the coin I was confident that it was some type of Chinese fantasy coin. There is a rim inscription on the coin. I do not believe there are rim inscriptions on Japanese One Yen from any period. The inscription reads, "DA QING ZAO BI CHANG" and has Chinese characters and not Kanji. Anyway it was a learning experience and has peaked my interest in Japanese coins. Kinda funny in a way after spending alot of time in Japan when I could have picked up all the japanese coins I would have wanted....LOL!!!!
SO here's to my 5 Dollar dog of the year
Edit to add: This is a wonderful site for a quick reference to Japanese coins and dating check it out:
Japanese coins
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Comments
Looks a bit whizzed but at this price,great catch!
myEbay
DPOTD 3
Cathy
Obscurum per obscurius
<< <i>I feel that if satootoko reads this he's going to use a full arsenal of emoticons to express himself >>
I would, I would, but the site I get most of them from has gone down so I've got to replenish my stock. The only comment I can make at the moment is
<< <i>Looks a bit whizzed but . . . >>
A whizzed fantasy is no worse than a BU one IMHO.
I guess MSD61 never happened across one of my posts pointing out that Canadian sellers of Asian coins seem to be getting most of their inventory from China.
That Lion Coins site is a treasure trove for the serious collector of Japanese coins, and the how-to-date page is a wonderful resource for the casual collector as well. About my only disagreement is that Vic says "Gan" ("first") is sometimes used in place of the figure "1" for the first year of an era, and so far as I know it has always been used since dating of coins became standard procedure in Meiji 3 (1870).
BTW 8 to 5, and half your money back if you lose, that the weight is way off, probably in the 22-24g range.