Rare Japanese Gems This is a lovely new Japanese Coins celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Local Autonomy Law and each section of Japan has a different coin. This might be the nicest from Aomori and is hard to get in the US. Only a 5000 of 100,000 was released outside of Japan.
The Aomori coin, issued in October of Heisei 22 (2010) was the 12th in a series of 47 honoring each Prefecture of Japan, and sharing a common reverse. The Hokkaido coin was issued in September of Heisei 20 (2008). At least three have been issued each year, peaking in Heisei 22 when a total of 6 were issued. This year's production is scheduled as three, which will bring the total to 22. The Mint has not announced a completion date. Like the US State Quarter program, the 47 Prefectures Program provides for each Prefecture to design its own obverse. The Japan Mint has not explained how it determines the number to be issued each year, nor the basis for the sequence in which they are issued, which is neither alphabetical nor geographically arranged. A bi-metallic 500 yen coin series is being minted concurrently with the silver 1000 yen coins. Here is a link to the common reverse of that series: http://www.mint.go.jp/eng/coin/inter...reverse500.jpg The series was launched on the local autonomy law anniversary, but the law is not directly related to the series.
I also like the Okinawa Coin, Miyazaki Coin, and the Nara Coin. They are all hard to find in the US. I WISH the state quarters were half this good.
There are actually two things about this coin that is unusual. First, normally I open the capsule and take a photograph of the coin outside of the plastic (especially since the autofocus bounces off the plastic). This coin has a capsuke with some kind of lock that i can not open. Secondly, it came packed in a plastic case that looks something like a case for an old zip disk. Very Japanese... Ruben
