Hello, so I got this coin a few weeks ago, but I've been having trouble identifying it. I think it's Japanese because of some of the writing, I think the year is 94 or 49(I always get it mixed up with which way to go for some reason) and I can't find a match for the period using the dating site I use for Japanese coins. Anyway, any help is appreciated! (I use http://www.lioncoins.com/nippon.htm for dating coins)
It's from Taiwan (Republic of China). The coin was minted in the "49th year" which is 1960. The denomination is "one yuan". Gary
Thanks manymore! no wonder I was having trouble with it, it wasn't even Japanese! Does China and Japan use the same symbols for numbers?
Yes, but after world war 2 the Japanese started writing thier numbers left to right, instead of right to left. And of course the starting date would be different for different emperors, foundiang of the Republic etc.
The character at the left end of the string at the top in your first picture is the character for "year". In dating Chinese/Japanese/old Korean coinage that character always follows the date. They do indeed, but their coins are easy to tell apart. The character at the right end of that string is the character for "middle", which is part of the Chinese name for China. Spotting it won't help you determine whether the coin is from Taiwan, the mainland Republic of China pre-1949, or the current Communist Chinese government, but it will tell you that the coin isn't Japanese, or late 18th-early 19th Century Korean.
