I have looked, at one time or another, for information on a coin my mother-in-law got for me at the Bank of Japan (nice lady). Very interesting coin, and with the exception of a couple of 2-peso pieces, my only gold. Anyone else have one or more of these, or know any more about the story? I think they were HEAVILY counterfeited.
The reason why it was heavily counterfeited was simply because of the excessively high face value compared to the amount of gold in the coin. It's literally a 1000 dollar coin and there's not even an ounce of gold on it. Here is an article reported a while back http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/business/fake-coins-embarrass-the-japanese.html
Not too sure what other information you are looking for but if you are concerned that what you have is counterfeit, I don't think it is one of them. Essentially it was the banks that got hit hard as they didn't know what they were looking at. Once they were redeemed at the bank, they were never to be resold to the public, so I don't think any counterfeits were intentionally sold to the public. The public in general rarely bought gold off from private individuals so I don't believe the counterfeits are as bad as one would imagine.
Just wondering if they ever found out if it was some outfit or organization that did the counterfeiting. Mine is from the Bank of Japan, although I don't have any paperwork. My mother-in-law bought it.
IIRC back in 1986-1987 the price of gold was in the $400ish and whatever the yen/dollar exhange rate was, the coins had around 40,000 yen in gold value. However, the government sold them at face value, a good source of income... Here is a follow up article, and I can't remember how/if it was resolved. Kind of sounds like civil forfeiture. Seized on suspicion and kept even in the absence of a prosecution, or even a crime. Well, at least without knowing the outcome. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/20/b...n-in-the-case-of-the-chrysanthemum-coins.html
I can't figure the edit function on my tablet...so here is what I wanted to add to the above: According to the British dealer site Chard/TaxFreeGold, though there does not appear to be a formal announcement (which would be in keeping with a face saving settlement), it does appear as though the British dealer was reimbursed his funds. https://taxfreegold.co.uk/japanchrysanthemumcoinsaffair.html So, maybe not such a major counterfeiting scheme after all? Though it was a plausible idea. Edited to add (must be a time out feature here), in answer to the OP question, I do have a proof one.
Very cool. 1986 in honor of the Showa Emperor's 60 years of rule 100,000 Yen coin. Thanks for the picture - please post more Japanese coins! 天皇陛下(Ten-No Hei-Ka, His majesty the Emperor) 御在位 (Go-Zai-I, years of rule)六十年(Roku-Jyu Nen, 60 years) 記念 (Ki-Nen, Commemoration) 硬貨(Kou-Ka, Coin).
