Quite certain that these don't appear very often. First up is a square looking coin from Sendai Prefecture. Cast in iron - has an interesting cud at the bottom. Not rare or any sort but thought the cud makes it different. Next up is an interesting silver "coin" from Akita Prefecture, made around 1863. It's a hammered silver "plate" - thinly beaten and marked as 4 monme 6 bu. This coin did not last long as in 1870, uniform coinage appeared through the nation and in 1871, the yen is declared as the national currency. I'm certain a lot were melted down. Lastly is a gold coin - never had a gold coin from Japan and found this in a reasonable price. Struck in 1871 - it's a really tiny coin. Guess that's all for now - something different for a change?
I'm not really into pre-Meiji provincial coinage, but I sure Love your Meiji 4 "high dot" gold yen, all 13.5mm of it! As you know, 3 years later the same 1.67g of .900 gold was squeezed into a 12mm planchet.
I wasn't a big fan of pre-Meiji provincial coinage either hontonai until I saw a few examples while I was in the Daimaru department store in Tokyo a few months ago. Prices were outrageous but I got to see some awesome koban and wanted one ever since. Not in gold but this will do for now.
I have always liked Japanese coins - my dad brought a few back from when he served in the AF there, one of the coins I still have is a 50 sen from 1897 that he to this day cannot remember where and how he got it. It is a half dollar sized coin in silver though. I really got interested in the pre-Meiji coins when I found one of the oval 100 mon coins in a coin shop when I was a kid - Japanese coins had a way of being unique - shapes, designs etc. Here is one I bought for my now 8 year old daughter a few years ago for a specific reason: The denomination of the coin is Bu, which is also her nickname. It is just curious to think 150 years ago these coins were in common usage, even with square shapes and counterstamps.
