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Message:: [QUOTE="hontonai, post: 1164469, member: 4703"]Pictures would certainly help figure out what it is you have, but unless you have misread the date, you don't have a silver yen. The age of Japanese modern coinage began in Meiji 3 (1870) with, among other coins, a 26.9568 gram silver yen.  That coin had a dragon on the obverse, a sunburst on the reverse, and no English inscription or western-style numbers. The next few years saw a variety of minor coins in copper and silver, but no yen.  Finally, in Meiji 7 (1874) the long-running design with the "416 - ONE YEN - 900" inscription under the obverse dragon was issued, with a reverse wreath surrounding the Japanese characters for 1 yen.  With some skips, and some minor alterations, that coin was issued for four decades, ending with the Taisho 3 (1914) version. Neither the Standard Catalog of World Coins, the Japanese Numismatic Dealers Assn. Catalog, nor any of my other multiple references, describe or depict a Meiji 6 (1873) 1 yen denomination. The JNDA Catalog does show two different Meiji 7 (1874) trade dollar patterns in silver, but no yen patterns in any year. The "copper film" is not a known problem of the early Japanese western-style mints, and would not usually be expected on a 90% silver coin.[/QUOTE]