This piece seems to be a Mameita Gin of some variety.It doesn’t match up with any I can find.It is about 12mm.It appears to have”God Of Plenty” on one side.The other side is a mystery to me.I hope that there is a specialist out there that can identify what it is.
Here is my 2 cents. It’s worth 1 cent. The era seems like Gembun 1736-1818 The reverse is somewhat of a conundrum. When I first saw it, if you rotate it as I have, it reminds me of the stamps on the back of the gold Bu. That’s all I have as of now.
I’ll throw in another weird thing about the reverse. This is the mirrored image of the “Ei” character.
Thank you for your input.In my continued search for a match all the images of Daikoku’s likeness on bean coins that I have viewed have him holding the wish granting mallet in his right hand and his bag of precious things in his left hand.My piece has what appears to be a mirrored image .
I'm no expert but I stare at a lot of Japanese auctions. Plus I have an interesting book that is a showcase of an extensive collection of type published by a Japanese collector. I bought the book at the 2019 ANA going by the inscription and my vague memory--he was hanging out with Clark Smith and the booth was kitted out with a big couch IIRC but I digress. Are your pictures mirrored like @mrbreeze asked? Daikoku is flipped. In any case, the Daikoku looks off otherwise-- if that is the regular bun character on his tummy it's incomplete and I can't tell if it's the gembun or the bunsei style for sure. I've never seen one that is incomplete like that. Though I definitely lean towards gembun. Also looks mirrored which confuses my brain trying to see if it's more of an up/down curve (it's kind of straight). But I've not seen any that have the partial character on the belly--the head might be cut off or off center/mis-aligned but the tummy mark should have the full 'bun' character. Plus at 12 mm it shouldn't be so sloppy/mushy in the design. Plenty of room to make the hand/hammer clearer. And also agree that reverse looks more like a partial mint official signature block you would find on the gold pieces--not appropriate on bean money. There is nothing like this reflected in my go to books--the Hartill, JNDA, The Standard Catalog of Japanese Coins (English language and akin to the JNDA though organized differently), and the Japanese collector's book I mentioned. The only thing I could say about the latter is it does say 'volume 1' on the cover . Now all that said, most of what I see does not have English translations and there are plenty of interesting things that could have been played around with. There are also counterfeits. Definitely a curiosity!
Thank you for the interest and research.You searched specialized reference material I do not have access to.I have considered possibilities of it being a charm ,token ,counterfeit ,pattern, or coin of an obscure local mint.I agree with your assessments while holding out hope someone might know what it is.
