I think these two coins are Japanese, but I would like to know more about them. The first one, I bought four that look the same to me. I don't know if there's a year on here but a brief glance made it seem like the characters were all the same. I'd like to know the denomination and year if there is one on there. The second says 5 sen. I was thinking maybe post-WWII because of the English characters.
The first coin is from Taiwan. The left image gives the denomination as "one yuan" ("one dollar"). The right image gives the year as 1960 (49th year of the Republic of China) and that it was minted by the "Bank of Taiwan". The second coin is Japanese. The denomination is 5 sen and it was minted in 1899 (Meiji 32nd year). I am not familiar with Japanese coins so, hopefully, another forum member can provide additional information. Gary
I don't know a lot about Japanese coins, but I can read some simple Japanese. On the obverse: 大 - usually pronounced "dai" or "die" and typically means "large" - it probably means "empire" in this context (does anyone know?) 日本 - pronounced "nee-hone" means Japan - every Japanese coin I've seen (so far) includes these characters 明治 - these are the characters for the Meiji Era under Emperor Mutsuhito that ran from 1868 - 1912 - pronounced approximately "May-jee" 三十二 - this is the Kanji for 32 pronounced "san-juu-ni" san = 3; juu = 10 (3 X 10); ni = 2 so (3 X 10) + 2 = 32 The last symbol looks like an archaic symbol for year, which today looks like this: 年 and is pronounced "nen" or "toshi" depending on the context - I think it would be "nen" here. So, going clockwise from the bottom it reads "Large Japan" (I'm guessing this means Japanese Empire or something to that effect) - Meiji Era 32nd year. On the reverse: 五 - the Kanji for "five" usually pronounced "Go" The second very complicated symbol also looks archaic, but must mean "Sen" - I'd have to look it up to verify.
According to the current Japanese Numismatic Dealers Association catalogue, an 1899 copper-nickel 5-sen coin in that condition has a full retail value of about 1000 yen ($12.50), so it's not a bad little coin. The Taiwanese coin, on the other hand, is quite common and has a Krause catalogue value of about 10 cents.
That's a good deal for 25 cents, and I have never seen one before which is why I bought it. I don't often buy Asian coins because I can't read them so it's hard to find out what they are, but if I think they are old enough I'll take a chance. I had hoped the Taiwanese coins might be silver, but it's alright.
Yeah, it was in the dealer's world coin bin. There's probably a lot of deals out there with Asian and Middle Eastern coins because most people can't tell what they are.
Nice. I guess the pivotal question is whether you could sell it for 25 cents... I'm guessing you easily could... I'm not sure if you could get $12.50 for it, but you at least bought it for far far far far below its value.
Yeah, I wouldn't sell it anyway since I only have one, but if I had multiples I might. I've found for less popular countries the coins often don't really approach the Krause values. I'm not sure how how Japanese coins are.
Another meaning of "Dai" is "Great" and that is the meaning for which it appears on Meiji and Taisho coins as well as generally on Showa coinage issued through the end of WWII. Yup. Right again.
