I just received this in the mail today and will send it out to be graded at the end of the week. It has a great eye appeal and very few marks which can be uncommon for these.
That is my favorite coin design in the world. That looks like a very nice example. I have a few graded examples for comparison. This is also a 1903 明治三十六年 - NGC MS 61 And the one year Taisho piece from 1914 大正三年 - NGC MS 64 I also have 1892 and 1912, but I apparently don't have any pictures if these two handy.
I live in Japan, and have an extensive collection of 1 yen coins. I have only 5 missing dates (minted) between 1870 and 1914. Less common ones include Meiji 41 - 1908, Meiji 35 - 1902. Here's a few: Meiji 15 (1882), Meiji 34 (1901), Meiji 45 (1912) You can sometimes find special presentation packs: These have one example from Meiji & one from Taisho. In this case Meiji 38 (1905) and the single date of Taisho T3 (1914). Difficult to see, but the design and lettering are in gold.
Here's an interesting pair of coins. Yr 22, 1889. The 1st one is in pretty good condition, bottom is a little worn, but there is a strange detail to the right of the spiral ball, below the jaw of the dragon. Here is the detail, side by side: On the left, the area highlighted has details that seem to be angular and "tooled". Those parts are also a different shape. (The bottom jaw, the leg and the top 5 spines on the tail.) The rest of the coin is exactly the same as the one on the right (I've check using stereoscopic viewing). I suspect that originally, there may have been a chop mark there, that was filled with fresh molten silver, and "tooled" using a very fine engraving tool. If so, while quite well done, is definitely different, which is to be expected with such a tiny area. Any comments?
Looks like the one on the left has Popeye's arm. A much thicker appendage, missing the 'knuckle', and the nearby tail spikes are also rather crude. Agree it looks like it's been messed with quite a bit. Very crude. What does the reverse look like? Plugging a hole or other evidence of damage? Kind of interesting. It's a slightly better date, but not a rarity coin. Maybe it was practice for another, more important, project? Very interesting!
The reverse is slightly worn, but no damage, so no plugged hole. The tooling might look crude when the magnification is extreme, but when you look at it with naked eye, the tail spines don't look rough at all, they are that small.... the thickest spine is about 0.5mm thick. I only noticed the difference when I was comparing the two coins in stereoscopic viewing. The space between the dragon's lower jaw, and the leg ("Popeye's arm") was much smaller. The "scales" on "Popeye's arm" are so small that the gaps are probably 0.1mm, which is tiny. I'm not sure how anybody could have engraved this. Another possibility; Perhaps the die was worn and had a chip that was temporarily repaired before a new die was made?
Although not fully locked down in Japan for COVID, most shops have been closed after requests from the government. Ginza Coins was closed from 6th April, but opened on 1st June. I visited yesterday, and here is what I bought: Yr3 1870. Yr23 1890. Yr36 1903. Yr23 was a replacement for a worn example in my collection. I couldn't resist the Yr36, which, although it looks black at the edges, is actually orange, blue and purple, with a touch of green.
lovely yens! Just got my first slabbed one, hope to get more and then will post pics. For me I don't aim for MS ones....I like mine circulated and prefer the circ cameo look!
There's a large range of silver Yen in Japan of course. It means that you can find nice example of these coins for quite reasonable prices. These 3 cost me a total of 67,000yen ($615 USD, 540 Euro)
Bad photos from 2+ years ago, either my photo program is off, I was out of focus, or I should be wearing my glasses right now. But here is a 1908 for you. A 'mere' AU, but one I like.
Here is my M41 1908. I got it at Ginza Coins for 12,000yen ($109, 97 Euro), which I thought was a good price for this low mintage coin (only 334,705). (1902 with only 668,782 is much easier to find in Japan) Meiji 41 1908:
