I picked this up last week. I found it to be very cool and could find nothing else about it online. Has anyone ever seen one of these. Each medal weights 2.5g in Silver, Gold and Platinum.
It's not a good luck charm. These are based off the old currency - koban. Looks like they are struck as bullion format. Note that Japan Mint rarely issues medals in platinum so that's pretty scarce there! This will be the third example that I have seen in platinum.
Thanks for the input. I kinda thought they mimicked the Koban style but i dont know enough about the coinage or culture to guess any further.
Is there anything on it which says it was issued by the Japan Mint? I couldn't find anything. I would guess it is a bullion issue boxed set by a private issuer in commemoration of the 1970 Osaka expo. Shape looks inspired by the old Japanese koban (小判) coins. It says so on the coins: 開運 = kaiun = good luck 小判 = koban = the old ingot style coinage the other side has some good-luck phrases: 千両 = senryou = 1000 ryo, but more generally, immense fortune 太閤 = taikou = some kind of high position like a grand chancellor Anyway, lots of good luck-type stuff, I think it's a third party ingot.
