Hello, I just wanted to see if anyone could help me put a date on this coin. It seems to be a Japanese 100 yen. I have checked the Standard Catalogue of World Coins. However, the coins listed have Western numerals on the coins and this one does not. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
It's year one of the Heisei era, or 1989. The Japanese use an ordinal number for the first year of a reign rather than a cardinal like every other year. Year 1 of the Heisei era was also year 64 of the Showa era, which was the reign title Hirohito chose. His death from cancer led his son Akihito to ascend to the throne, and he chose the reign title Heisei. He will be stepping down this year, on April 30th, so there will probably be a new set of coins like this one with the new reign title for his son, whatever that will be.
The date on the coin, "平成元年," is pronounced "Heisei Gan'nen" and means roughly "First year of the emperor Heisei," or Emperor Akihito. It will be interesting to see how and when the coins change under the new Emperor Naruhito. The Japanese Mint's website shows 2019's coins as saying "平成三十一年" or "平成31年," so perhaps they will not change until next year. Japanese Emperors are supposed to serve for life, so Akihito had to obtain a special dispensation from the Japanese government to abdicate, which marks the first time an Emperor has abdicated in over 200 years. He cited poor health and his recent appearances, where he appeared to wobble, support his claim pretty well. He has started succession rites already. It should be pretty interesting.
