Hello to all. I hope I can get some help in this forum. Can anyone tell me if the coin in the attached photos is genuine or counterfeit? I know coins are not supposed to be cleaned in order to preserve their value. Since I have no intent to sell and love shiny coins, I used a soft toothbrush and Brasso to remove the oxidation and grime. The weight is 32.3gm and the diameter is about 40mm. Thanks!
Genuine 1884 yen are 38.6mm in diameter. If I'm reading your caliper correctly, yours is 41.5mm, or 7.5% too large. Strike one. The genuine ones weigh, as marked, 416 grains, which is equal to 26.9563g. Yours is ~498.5 grains, or 20% too heavy. Strike two. The denticles are wrong. Strike three. The tip of the dragon's tail is in the wrong position. Strike four. Buy why go on?
My thanks to scottishmoney and hontonai for responding. I had expected that it was a fake. This coin was part of a found cache. I had managed to identify all the other coins as fakes (clearly horrid copies of pillar dollars, mexican coins and a few other types) except for this 1 Yen coin. Now I'm wondering why someone would even bother burying a bunch of counterfeit coins 4 feet down? Hardly worth the effort of digging, I say. Thanks again!
Chinese 1 yuan coins get counterfeited and that's a face value of a mere 12 US cents. If you can make profit from 12 cents, anything more than that it clearly profitable. Ouch.
Some individuals were convicted a few years ago of counterfeiting the 1 and 5 Jiao coins. There are ten and two of those denominations in the Yuan.
When I was living in Japan I'd frequent a great open air antiques market in Kyoto any time I got the chance. Without fail, there would be a bunch of fellows sifting through stacks of boxes of old silver yen coins. They would hold them next to their ear and tap the coins (I am assuming as some form of counterfeit test). The sound of all the tapping coins in that market is one of my favorite Japan memories.
Err...actually I meant the OTHER kind of target practice, as in burying the fakes in my back yard at various depths and using metal detectors. Some may call it a "test bed"?
I have a small counterfeit collection that I keep around in a secret box; every now and then I will add a piece. This is the best way to learn to not get pinched …. Funny story last week my friend told me “…. Hey Jay … that’s your best coin in all your collection”… I then replied “That’s a fake…”
Here's is a link to the World Coin Gallery, and from what I can see this is either a real coin or a reproduction a replica/counterfeit, if it is real it was made from 1887-1912, there is also a 1914 one that seems the same
Sorry my friend, but you have gotten some very incorrect information. There is absolutely zero possibility that the pictured "coin" is genuine. The five Japanese characters on the right side, reading from right to left, are "Mei Ji Ju Nana Nen" - "Meiji 17 Year", which was 1884. The general design was first minted in Meiji 7 (1874) in two varieties, both of which were 38.6mm in diameter. (The direction of the spiral in the pearl between the dragon's claws changed from counterclockwise on Y#A25 to clockwise on Y#A25a.) In Meiji 19 (1886) Y#A25.3, a 38.3mm version with an increased number of reeds was issued alongside the older version. Meiji 20 (1887) was the final year of Y#A25.2 and the first year of the reduced diameter Y#A25.3 at 38.1mm. With some gaps, the coin was minted each year through Meiji 45 (1912), the year of the Meiji Emperor's death. In Taisho 3 (1914) Y#38 was minted, identical to Y#A25.3 except for the regnal name at the beginning of the date. The weight of 416 grains (26.9563g - rounded to 26.96 both by Krause and the JNDA in its catalog) remained unchanged throughout the series. The tip of the dragon's tail moved around a bit in Meiji 25 (1892), but was never located at the first spine as the pictured coin shows. Genuine coins have a smooth rim enclosing a single row of denticles whereas the pictured coin as an irregular double row. JNDA describes a few minor varieties that Krause doesn't mention, and Krause describes an undated version that JNDA doesn't, but otherwise the two authorities are in complete agreement about this coin, and none of the generally accepted English language authorities (Munro, Jacobs & Vermeulle, Cummings) mention overweight or overwide versions, or coins with any of the other discrepancies shown.
Gotcha bud... it was a funny visual though! Still, I'm not sure any counterfeit is going to put off a signal you'd ever want to dig anyway. Depends on the detector I guess, but mine will send back different reading for different types of metals. Unless the fake is made of actual silver, it will probably return a "junk" signal.
