I recently purchased this at auction. I an not a prominent Japan coin collector by any means and had very seen a 1897 (m30) example with the Government (Gin) countermark. These were destined for being trade dollars in Taiwan which was a possession of Japan and possible other possessions. In 1897 Japan also did a re-evaluation of the gold yen. Many coins were melted down and the rest were marked Gin to keep from being brought back to Japan to be exchanged for gold. The gin marks were placed in 2 specific places either the right or left side of the "ichi" character. It was determined by Krause the Tokyo mint put on the right and Osaka on the left. I found this example to be eye appealing and possibly having an old light cleaning. I did also buy a graded 20 sen piece with it as well. Please feel free to leave comments, your pictures of examples or correct me if im wrong about anything or add to it.
