Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="gxseries, post: 2993191, member: 4373"]The silver 1 yen coin has more history than what one would have thought. I only learned it quite recently. In 1897, the silver 1 yen coin is demonetized and is no longer legal tender when Japan adopted the gold standard. The most likely reason is because of the Sino-Japan war as it would have drained Japan's finance drastically. As a result, all circulating silver 1 yen coins were immediately culled from circulation and were countermarked with the gin sign to be exported to overseas like China, Taiwan and other Japanese colonies. These gin countermark meant that they were no longer redeemable in face value and cannot be re-exported back to Japan. There were strong signs to remove the dragon as it was deemed to have 'Chinese elements'. This is the reason why all the newer coinage no longer had the dragon design and had the raising sun emblem. That said, the silver yen coins came back in production in 1901 as it is likely that there were not much silver 1 yen coins left to be countermarked and demand would have exceeded supply. While there is a pattern of the silver 1 yen coin with the rising sun emblem - this did not come to fruition as it would have likely caused confusion with the traders / overseas market. It's an interesting food of thought that all 1 yen coins with the gin countermark and 1 yen coins struck after 1897 never circulated in Japan.[/QUOTE]