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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 13316, member: 669&quot;]For the benefit of those not familiar with the marks which Chinese merchants punched into foreign silver coins to indicate that they had been tested and found real, here&#039;s a Japanese Yen with one in the lower part of the field to the left of the &quot;yen&quot; character.&nbsp; These marks can be found on Japanese yen and trade dollars, British and U.S. trade dollars, and the silver coins of many other nations which circulated in the Far East in the late 19th Century.&nbsp; By definition a chopmarked coin has been circulated.&nbsp; Frequently coins have multiple chops - 9 is the most I&#039;ve ever seen, but I&#039;ve heard of coins with more.</p><p><img src="http://i11.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/0e/b5/a5_12_s.JPG" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, although listed by an ignorant seller as being a Chinese chopmark, the countermark on this coin is an official one of the Japanese Mint at Osaka.&nbsp; The Tokyo Mint put the same stamp in the right side field.&nbsp; The character in the circle is &quot;gin&quot; (pronounced &quot;geen&quot; with a hard &quot;g&quot;), meaning silver.&nbsp; They were used to mark both 416 grain one yens, and 420 grain trade dollars, in 1897 when both were demonetized for internal use in Japan, and shipped to Korea and other Asian nations to be used in international trade.&nbsp; Several years later they were re-monetized.&nbsp;&nbsp; AU examples of these coins are known.</p><p><img src="http://i20.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/0e/ff/53_12_s.JPG" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>(Since I don&#039;t collect chopped coins, and didn&#039;t have a picture handy of one with a &quot;Gin&quot; countermark, both of these pictures are taken from closed eBay auctions.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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