These are the seller's pictures of a Meiji 6 (1873) copper 2 sen (Y#18.1, JNDA#01-45). On arrival it will finish off a complete date set of the denomination, which was issued for only 12 years. With a mintage of less than 4-million for 1873-74 (generally considered to be mostly '74s although there is no official breakdown) this is the absolute key to the series, worth more in any circulated grade than the rest of the series combined. Mintage for the other years ranges from 12-million to more than 43.5-million. This is the early variety, with square scales on the dragon's back. During the 1877 run the design was changed to the more common "V" shape. The nature of the design causes the square scales to wear smooth quicker than the Vs, based on my comparison of the detail in the reverse leafs on many examples of the 1/2, 1 and 2 sen coins which all have both types of dragon. The clear definition of nearly all the scales on this piece isn't seen very often.:high5: It's just about 1mm larger than a US half dollar. The JNDA and Jacobs both call it copper. Krause calls it bronze, but Cummings lists the exact alloy as .980 copper with .010 each tin and zinc. I don't know what the normal percentages are, but as a metallurgical layman, I call it plain old copper. The tiny zinc content makes the argument for "brass" just as strong as the equally small tin content's argument for bronze. I wish it didn't have those bag marks to the left of the denomination in the reverse field, but that lovely chocalate patina (almost certainly original and uncleaned) more than compensates. I've made a number of purchases from this Japanese seller, and virtually all of the coins have been better than the pictures he provides.
Sweet coin Roy! I love the way you wrote it up too. Helps folks like me learn something they likely never would have known.:thumb:
Hey neat, another Canadian Dime Very nice one too:thumb: http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=9775&highlight=sen Take Care Ben
