Well, the local shop had several bags of junk coins which hadn't been set out yet, so I seized the chance to get an early chance to pick over them. I haven't checked what I got yet, but a few looked interesting. First pic is an overview, second is modern Japan coins. Face value of 1100 yen for $1.60 US is worth over 4x what I paid for them just as spending cash. Some of them are from the 60s, which is kind of fun. First year of issue of the non-silver 100 yen is Showa 42 (1967), I believe. I don't believe any of the Showa Era Cu-Ni 100 yen carry any significant premium over face value, though.
I wouldn’t call that “junk”. That’s a nice variety of countries and time periods! You could ride the Tokyo subway for a whole day with those yen and have a couple hundred left over for a snack at the 7 Eleven.
I kind of forgot about these for a moment. Anyway, here's some of the older Japan types: (L to R from top row) 10 Yen, reeded edge: Showa 29, 28, 27 (1954, 1953, 1952) 1 Yen Showa 24 (1949) 10 Sen Showa 16 (1941) 5 Sen Taisho 6 (1917) This one is a decent find. It's not in bad shape and could be worth a few dollars. 1 Sen Showa 18 (1943)
Switzerland: 20 Rappen 1909, 1947 x3, 1974 10 Rappen 1946 5 Rappen 1921 Because the Swiss types stayed virtually unchanged for so long, sometimes you can find older dates in junk bins. Not sure if they carry much of a premium in circulated condition, but I'm happy with the 1909 20 Rappen and 1921 5 Rappen. Plus, with $1.16 US = 1 CHF, even the 10 Rappen are worth more in face value than the 10 cents I paid for them.
Denmark: None of these are terribly old, but they're fun and all worth more than 10 cents face at US $0.15 per DKK 20 Kroner 1990 2 Kroner 1954 5 Kroner 1990
Norway: Unfortunately, some of them look like they have adhesive tape residue 1 Krone 1947 50 Øre 1945 25 Øre 1924, 1949 10 Øre 1924, 1940 1 Øre 1929
Germany: 2 Pfennig 1874, 1875, 1911 2 Reichspfennig 1924 5 Reichspfennig 1925 50 Reichspfennig 1940 x2 Austria 1 Kreuzer 1860, 1885, 1894 The last two Austria are in decent shape.
Some Commonwealth coins, more or less. Malta 1977 1 Cent Fiji Penny 1965 x2 Kenya 1971 1 Shilling Canada 1 Cent 1918 East Africa 1 Cent 1959 Cyprus 3 Mils 1955 UK 1 Penny, 1869(?), 1884, 1901
Take a look at the couple of French coins with a hole in them. If they are 25 centimes, the valuable dates are 1916, 197, 1919,1936 and 1940. If, on the other hand they are the later 20 centimes, the datesto look for are 1945B, 1945C, 1946 and 1946B
Thanks, they are actually 10 Centimes, 1917 and 1926. I guess 1917 was a lower mintage year for the 10 centimes too, but only worth about a dollar? The rest are: France, 2 Francs, 1921 Belgium, 10 Centimes, 1904 (French text) Belgium, 10 Centimes, 1916 (German WW1 Occupation) Netherlands, 1 Cent, 1929 Bohemia and Moravia, 1941, 20 Haléřů
For completeness, here are the rest. Thanks for sticking with me through all these! Saudia Arabia, 50 Halalah, 1397AH = 1977 Korea, 50 Hwan, 4294 = 1961 PRC, 1 Fen, 1963 Oakland "Key" Transit System token, 1947, 1 Fare
