japanese coins
andycook
Posts: 10
Any good sources of information on Japanese coins from the late fifties and early sixties? How about Hong Kong coins from that time? Thanks.
Building a set of EBAY "Estate" coins.
0
Comments
Annual catalogs of the Japanese Numismatic Dealers Association.
Lion Coins
Link
History of the US Constitution Coin Set
<< <i>The Krause catalog is probably the best for these years. >>
Not if you're looking for valid pricing information.
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Indeed, they remain difficult right up through 1974.
<< <i>Do you know why that is, Cladking? >>
The silver 100Y isn't extremely tough so I guess it's the same as almost everywhere; people
just didn't see any point in collecting or saving base metal junk that was made in the hundreds
of millions. There were no mint sets until 1969 and then the mintages of these were quite low
until '75. Usually when I say "no mint sets" this refers only to official sets and there will be a lit-
tle smattering of privately assembled sets, but in this case it appears that there just aren't any
mint sets.
Take the reeded edge 10Y for instance. I've seen dozens of these that were set aside by col-
lectors but each looks as though it was plucked out of circulation. Most are technically unc but
the older they are the less "unc" they are. To me this implies these did not all circulate. A few
were probably hung up in the system and sitting idle until sometime in the early '60's someone
tried to find nice specimens. I've never seen one of these that is both no question unc and red.
The little aluminum 1Y aren't a lot better. You can find the early dates in unc but they're always
battered and bruised. The big 50Y's are tough but available. The early small ones tend to be
tougher. The real problem for me has been the cu/ ni 100Y's. These represented enough money
that few saved them. They also seem to have circulated universally more than most coins. ie ev-
ery coin circulated. Yr 42 & 43 are toughest and later ones are probably from mint sets. Several
of these are pretty tough. Krause still lists these for next to nothing and even the Japanese guides
list them at only $20 or so.
As with all moderns you do have to exercise some restraint if you can find this stuff for sale. Pick
up anything if it's solid unc at catalog but be aware that some coins can exist in quantity. This ap-
plies especially to very low denomination coinage. Only a few dollars could have set aside a sub-
stantial number of '55 1Y for instance. A few hundred hitting the market is enough to affect a $15
price on a modern.
With a lot of countries there's almost nothing available or almost everything is common. It's really
a mixed bag with the Japanese coinage but they tend to be scarce and underrated. I sense there's
still almost no home market for these coins. I used to correspond with some Japanese collectors
but they had no interest in this stuff, I had little they desired, and they couldn't locate much of this
for me.