I found this coin the other day and I have no idea where it is from or how much (if anything) it is worth. Does anyone recognize this? It almost looks like a fake coin. Most contries like to put pictures of their famous leaders on coins, but this just has a bunch of characters on it. The only thing that even resembles a value on the coin is the 0 looking character on the coin. The coin is the same on both sides with smooth edges. It is a little hard to get a good picture of the coin, this is best I could get for now.
I had the brilliant idea of taking a picture of the coin through a magnifying glass under different lightings. These new pictures make it much easier to see.
Japan, many Muslim countries, and others routinely produce actual monetary coins with no representation of people, but this is not one of those. Some of the characters have a slight resemblance to either Korean writing, or Japanese Kana, the "alphabets" in which each character represents a syllable. There are no numbers in any of the 26 numbering systems included on the chart in every Krause volume. That apparent lack of a denomination, the fact that both sides are the same, and the apparent lack of anything to identify its source, all scream "TOKEN" in a very loud voice.
ok, my reply may be 3 months late, but i just read this while browsing older threads...hopefully still help. This is a token for a japanese game slot machine. The inscriptions are in japanese katakana script, which reads 'pachisuro' パチスロ...
you're right gxseries. 'pachisuro' is another way of saying 'pachinko-suro', which is the japanese romanization of 'pachinko slot' machines.
Pachinko parlors are found all over Japan, filled with dozens of vertical machines with multiple spinners and openings. Steel balls are flipped by a lever with the object of causing multiple balls to drop into the tray at the bottom. Gambling on the machines is technically illegal, so when a player turns in his supply of balls when he's done playing, he receives chocolates and small trinkets. These can then be taken to a small window, usually in an alley outside of the building, where they are "sold" for cash. There were already Pachinko parlors all over Tokyo when I was first there in 1954, and on my last trip a few years ago they were still all over the place, usually with lots of balloons and colored streamers advertising their location. Like most pinball-type games it is partly skill and partly luck how a player does at any particular session.
Sterling,that is a very nice photo of a Pachinko parlour.I can guess that it is located in either Tokyo or Yokohama. Aidan.
The most significant difference between that picture and the Tokyo parlors of the '50s is that there were very few women playing the game back then.
Good guess Aidan. :thumb: ... I would have guessed Nagoya, but the source of this pic already disclosed the location Tokyo.
