I was at my grandfathers house and found all these old Japanese coins from when he went in the 70s. I have know idea what years they are because they are all in Japanese. I don't anything about Japanese coins. Where/how do you find the date. Are there any that look valuable at first glance? The pictures aren't the best so I can get close ups if there are some that look good. Any help would be great, thanks!
Japanese Coins use imperial dates: Heisei 平成: (1989-2019) Add the year number to 1988 Showa 昭和: (1926-1989) Add the year number to 1925 Taisho 大正: (1912-1926) Add the year number to 1911 Meiji 明治: (1868-1912) Add the year number to 1867 The numbers will also be in Chinese-style characters. Most of those look postwar to me, so except for the silver ones they probably don't carry much of a premium over face. If you have any 10 yen coins from the 1950s they have reeded edges and are worth about 50% more than the new ones, I've heard. The older 5 yen have brush style characters instead of print style (straight lines). I like to pick out older non-silver coins from 10 cent junk bins. Here is a picture of some older types you can find around. Second from the left on the top row is actually Manchurian puppet state occupation money.
All look to be common Japanese issues of the late 40s through early 70s. The 100 yen with rice stalks are .600 silver. I see several old style 50 yen, and the "pigeon" 5 yen are popular. Most older Japanese coins from before the early 60s were different in some way; e.g. the 5 yen used a different font, the 10 yen had reeded edges, several designs were used for the 50 yen, and the 100 yen contained silver. Except for the silver, early iterations of the modern coin designs are worth a negligible premium, like a 1940s nickel that is "worth" 6 cents wholesale. I see maybe $15-20 face value at a quick scan, numismatic value is maybe an extra $10 on top of that. They are worth much more as a keepsake - I wouldn't sell any, and I wouldn't mix more coins in either!
Agree with @Finn235 . Even if you have the scarcer date reeded edge 10 yen or holed 5 yen, in circulated condition they are not super valuable. Maybe if the cherry blossom 100 yens are the earlier dates and truly pristine they might be worth a few more dollars. Definitely more of keepsake treasures than high value. Maybe get binder and add some pvc-FREE pages to keep them in and you can make a keepsake album. edited to add the critical word FREE after PVC. Don't use pvc pages.
