Does anyone know if the mint that produced coins for Japan would file rims to conforming shape? I have a yen piece that I submitted to ANACS, which came back MS60 Details Rim Damage/Filed. I agree with the assessment that the rim was filed, but I was under the impression that it was done at the mint level, rather than PMD.
These coins should have sharp, high quality reeded edges. If it has signs of filing I don't doubt PMD.
Filing the rims is something that sounds like PMD. If you ever do find a definitive (ie, authoritative) answer to your question, like from a text source, please share it with us. Perhaps that source could lead me to some of my own questions: I would also like to get some information on the Japan Mint in Osaka (1949-present), like the names of their designers of this era's coins, relevant legislation and government oversight, mintage figures, pattern coins, etc.
Now, the weird thing... the edge reeds are clear. Literally the rims were filed down. I appreciate the input from you and mlov. Oh well.
There has got to be a text resource on these silver One Yen pieces. Filing the rims sounds like PMD, just because that seems like something a "bullion thief" would do, to hide the fact that silver is missing. If the mint did it, I would think that it would appear as "filing marks" that would go all across the face of the coin, or planchet before striking, or in areas of the fields. Kind of like other countries' silver coins of earlier times. These coins were made starting in the Meiji era (1870), right? I don't think that mint filing (to reduce the weight of a slightly overweight planchet) was done at this time in major mints. I gotta fact-check that, btw... Anyway, I would imagine that size/weight ratio tolerances were tight enough by then to elide any filing by the mint, since filing and weighing was done by hand(!) I've seen many of these One Yen silver pieces, they are very attractive, and I've never noticed rim or filing damage of any kind on XF to MS coins, unless it was dings, graffiti or chopmarks, of course.
I've never heard of any coins that were filed to correct weight, after being struck, at the mint. Not in Japan or elsewhere.
Post a photo. I don't see it can possibly happen. I was thinking it may be a high quality counterfeit and work was done to cover up the seam / rim. Otherwise it might have been an ex-jewellery.
