I was wondering if anyone could give me any help with reguards to a 100yen japanease coin i have narrowed the dates to 1957-1958 and would like to label it properly does anyone know where the date might be located or how to read it off the coin. http://cgi.ebay.ca/JAPAN-100-YEN-19...03296286QQihZ007QQcategoryZ3391QQcmdZViewItem i've double checked the symbols of this one found on wiki and mine to ensure there the same and its a much better image then what i can take with my camera. thanks in advance
On the coin you show you can see on the side with the denomination: 100 YEN / 2 characters meaning "Showa" (= era of Hirohito) / 3 horizontal lines = 3; a cross = 10; 3 horizontal lines = 3 / a character meaning "year". This coin has been struck in the 33rd year of reign of Hirohito (3x10+3 = 33). Showa 33 is 1958.
awesome ! thank you very much for that that is really a rather complex system they've got (or so it seems)
Here is a link to the best and most understandable Japanese coin dating site on the web. (Fully illustrated!)
Which is technically inaccurate. The date for the first year of each Imperial reign is written with the character "gan" (元), meaning "first" instead of the character "ichi" (一) meaning "one".