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Message:: [QUOTE="hontonai, post: 572750, member: 4703"]I'm not going to yell "FAKE!", no matter how great the temptation, based solely on pictures and a description.  If I knew what the seller is asking, it would definitely help me reach a decision. Unfortunately from the standpoint of trying to authenticate this piece, the Meiji 7 (1874) silver ¥1 is one of the rarest of the series, complicated by the existence of four distinct varieties for that initial year of mintage. Neither the Japan Mint website, the JNDA catalog, or any other reference book in my collection, breaks down the 900,000+ mintage among varieties, although relative mintage is hinted at by the valuation differences.  Most valuable is the "middle", followed in turn by the "early", "deep late" and "shallow late" in that order.  In most years that the basic design was used - from Meiji 7 (1874) through Taisho 3 (1914) - mintages significantly exceeded 1-million, peaking at more than 22-million in Meiji 27 - 1894. The "early" variety can be eliminated from consideration here, as the direction of spiral on the pearl in the dragon's claws reversed itself between the "early" and "middle" varieties. Problem: <ul> <li>Based on the shape of the "nana" ("7") character, the coin purports to be one of the late varieties, (distinguished from each other solely by the depth of the carving on that character).  The key is the slight upcurve of the bottom stroke on the questioned coin.  On both of the earlier varieties that stroke is essentially horizontal with, perhaps, a slight downward ending.</li> <li>On the "middle" variety the line of the spiral makes about one and one half complete turns, with the tip of the stroke turning down slightly at its left terminus, while that line begins with a downward stroke and makes approximately two and one-half full turns on both late varieties.</li> </ul>The "nana" carving on the questioned coin would definitely qualify as "deep".  The "shallow" version is quite flat and has almost no relief even in a well-struck, uncirculated example. Although the size and weight appear to be correct, the value of the real coin is sufficiently high to justify making "collector counterfeits" (as opposed to "money counterfeits") from the correct alloy in the correct size.  In the condition shown, even with the cleaning(s) which are not considered as serious by Japanese collectors as by US collectors, if genuine the coin is easily worth more than a quarter-million yen (~US$2,517), and perhaps as much as ¥400,000 (~US$4,028). Aside from the obvious signs of vigorous (and probably multiple) cleaning, the surfaces don't show any obvious hints of irregularity, and the denticles on both sides look pretty normal, although what may be merely a trick of the lighting makes the rim width on the reverse a little dodgy. Bottom line - I'm suspicious, but wouldn't dream of basing a firm opinion on any pictures, even much better ones than already posted - unless, of course, the seller is offering it for a "too good to be true" price (anything less than US$1,000 or its equivalent).[/QUOTE]

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