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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Stork, post: 3495205, member: 71642&quot;]Top one is a Japanese 10 sen, dated Showa 19 aka 1944.&nbsp; Made of tin, hence the poor surfaces.&nbsp; Hard to come by in good shape.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fourth one down is a Japanese 1 sen, dated Showa 10, 1935.&nbsp; The second photo is upside down.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nothing super scarce or valuable, but kind of cool--if I had a holed coin like that I&#039;d probably stick it on my keychain. </p><p><br /></p><p>The sen is a fraction of the yen...100 sen to the yen.&nbsp; The original yen was either a small gold coin, or a large silver crown type coin intended for trade.&nbsp; Domestically was supposed to be gold, plus the fractional coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>By the time WWII was heating up most coins were base metals (last silver pre-war 50 sen was the 1938 which was much reduced vs. earlier iterations).&nbsp; Once the war was in full swing the coins debased by metal content and weight to the point where at the end of the war there were patterns being made of porcelain/clay coins (only a limited number &#039;circulated&#039;).&nbsp; After, the large silver yen became a small brass coin minted last in 1950, and the 50 sen was the last surviving fractional temporarily (gone by 1948). </p><p><br /></p><p>Bam, monetary reform, and the 1 yen became the lowest denomination in a small aluminum coin still minted from 1955 to now.&nbsp; Sort of like if our original silver dollars and dollar coins pre-1933 were replaced and the dollar was now our cent, and minted out of base metals, and all coins moving up were multiples. </p><p><br /></p><p>I guess you could say the 10 sen was an obsolete &#039;dime&#039;, and the 1 sen &#039;a cent&#039;, but the base unit being a yen makes them even more fractional.&nbsp; (currently 1 dollar is 111 yen, so the 100 yen coin is sort of a dollar-ish).</p><p><br /></p><p>The others I leave to those more able to deal with cash coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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