Buying coins in Japan -- Price Comparisons

In Japan, it's not expected that anyone will steal, so you can directly handle the coins I listed above without asking, (except for the silver 1 yen & 50 sen Meiji coins and the high grade 20 & 10 sen coins).
That means there is no language problem.... plus one employee speaks English.
You may find it a surprise that the shop is so small!!!

 

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An interesting read this has been!

@Dnas what are prices like on certified coins at Ginza? I saw a few PCGS holders in the photos that show up when googling them.

 

Slabbed certified coins look on the expensive side to me.

 

You can also find packs like this:
These packs usually have 1x Meiji & 1x Taisho silver One Yen. This is M38(1905) & T3 (1914). You can't quite see, but this has gold colored writing and leaves.


This was 25,000yen, at the 2nd floor shop at Nakano Broadway.

 

I was at Nakano Broadway again last weekend, and I bought a Mexican 8 Reales 1897 Libertad from the 2nd floor shop, probably around AU 55 or better.

However, I went up to the 3rd shop that has a lot more Meiji coins. While the 1 yen silver are a bit expensive (perhaps not excessively so), the 50 sen dragon silver coins are quite good value, with pretty good XF coins from 1800 yen (about $16.50), with better coins as well.
I think I'll go back to see if I can fill spaces in my 50 sen set.

 

In addition to Ginza I have been to this one in Shinjuku. Not sure if anyone is familiar with it. I spent some time on the street as a lost gaijin showing people my phone until I finally found it. The elevator door opens up directly inside the coin shop. There was a good collection of sets, with prices that seemed better than Ginza, along with some currency and quite a few silver yen.

 

I've seen references to that shop, but I haven't been in it. I think I'll try to visit a few shops that I've haven't been to, and report back!!!!
There's a couple in Shinjuku.

By the way, if you're searching the internet for coin shops in Japan, you may find "3 Coins".... this is like a $2 shop, not a coin shop. The "3 coins" means that most things are 300yen (3 x 100 yen coins)

 

I remember going to a 100 yen store in Aomori Prefecture and buying origami paper for my daughters. I’ve also been to a 30 ruble store in Russia back when 30 rubles equaled a dollar. Now it is probably the 80 ruble store.

 

I went to Nakano Broadway about the same time you did. I only found one coin shop (I think on the second floor). Bought a mix of European and South American coins off the elderly gentleman running the shop. Didn't realize there was a second shop in the place (bit of a maze, if I remember correctly). I'll have to trek on out there again sometime soon.

 

Oh boy, this is a trip down memory lane! Turns out I'm getting gaps in that memory, and it's been a decade since I was last there. Where does the time go?

My favorite place to buy was at the Tokyo International coin convention. I made that a couple times and that was loads of fun! But talk about being a fish out of water. Gaijin and female. Yikes.

Made it to a few of the small shops but the details of location escape me, but I'm pretty sure one was in Shinjuku and Broadway sounds super familiar. Oddly I don't think I ever made it to Ginza but it may have been where my husband snuck off to when he bought me the most awesome anniversary present ever given. Complete with JNDA cert.



There is a shop called World Coins Japan near the Hamamatsucho (?) stop? It took the trip there a couple times from Yokosuka. My coin hunting was complicated by the fact I was working full time and had a family that could only stand so much coin time. In any case IIRC the principal for World Coins Japan is also the one who runs the Auction World Japan auctions.

Ah, the Re-Cycle shops. Hard-off. That was the name. We'd stop in and buy some toys for the kids, then hit a sushi-go round. There are still an alarming number of Ultraman figures in my house.

In any case, I still have some coins somewhere with those same cardboard holders with the same stamps for the Emperor and years. As for pricing, I'm a bad person to ask. All I know is watching that last Stack's auction blew me away. The high end is going like gangbusters.

Other limited observations, PCGS holders are getting more and more popular, at least in auctions. NGC with 'prooflike' is a hot commodity, but otherwise lags. Watched a lot of the live bidding last night/early this AM and either there were issues with the coins in hand, or the PCGS ones just flat out brought more money. And PCGS now slabs bean money. Errors seem to be gaining more popularity too.

My 1930s-1960s coins languish. Supposedly common pieces yet finding them gem is hard. Too common for the big dealers. Not good quality ones from the run of the mill online types. And I wasn't smart enough to be looking for them when I was actually there. Not speaking or reading Japanese properly is a drawback too.

Someday it would be lovely to go back as a tourist with no job. Eat and go to coin shops. I missed the money museum in Tokyo so that would be terrific. A trip to the Osaka mint was well worth the time.

 

Summer of 2018 we went to Hungary where my wife is from, and we hunted down a little (tiny really) LCS and I bought a few things. IIRC, I spent about $30 on 4 coins that caught my eye. One was a 1538 Dinar, and seeing how I just bought another one for $22 here, I think the prices were fair if not cheap. Fortunately, my wife speaks Hungarian, and she acted as translator.
It was more about the experience, and getting souvenirs then the coins or the deals.

My favorite of the batch:



and the others;

 

Well, it's too late to edit, but it turns out hubs bought the Man-en in Nakano Broadway. I definitely remember buying coins there too. Plus Anime stores, toys, and for one of my sons (and one of his buddies) a YoYo shop. It was a lot of fun!

 

Wow. Japan in the 70s? What a time to be an exchange student there!
I'm looking at buying a Koban to add to my worldly collection. What an incredible piece of history they are!

 

I've never been in there. I think I'll take a look next weekend!!! (I can't go this weekend)
( I looked at their website, but I can't find any Japanese coins!!)

 

It's been ages and ages since I've been but IIRC they had Japanese coins too...in the store. But I'm over a decade out of date.

They did answer emails in English and they run Auction World Japan auctions, which have plenty of Japanese coins (and non-Japanese). And they communicate very well.