I've spent the last two days researching and identifying my foreign coins. I have two that I can't figure out though. The first one is spanish- it appears to be silver. the front has Alfonso XII facing the right, and says "ALFONSO XII" "POR LA G DE DIOS" and "1882". The reverse has a coat of arms, and says "REY CONST" "DE ESPANA". Also, to the left of the coat of arms is the number "10" above the letters "DE", and to the right of it is either a "C" or "G" above a "P", and a small "s" over a small "o". I'm sorry if that is a complicated, confusing description. I appreciate any knowledge anyone has to share. The other one appears to be asian. It is silver in color, but very very light-weight, like aluminum or something. One side has a large "1" in a circle, and five asian symbols (possibly chinese. ?) at the bottom. the other side has what looks like a small tree or plant with 3 branches and several leaves, with 3 symbols above it, and 2 symbols below it. Any clue? Thanks, -Adam
Your first coin is a coin of the Philippines, when it was still a Spanish colony. It is a coin of 10 centimos KM#148 (10 centimos de peso). I didn't find an image, but I post an image of a 20 centimos of the same series. The other one has to be a Japanese coin of 1 yen. I cannot tell by your description if it is 1 yen from the Showa era (emperor Hirohito) KM#74 or Heisei era (emperor Akihito) KM#95. I post both of them. The first 2 characters on the left under the "1" give the era. Showa era: Heisei era:
Thank You Thank you bart! You have been very helpful. I actually have a 1-yen coin from each of those eras. Can you tell me how old they are? Thanks again.
The Showa era (reign of Hirohito) goes from 1926 to 1989, your 1 yen coin was issued from 1955 until the death of the emperor in 1989. The Heisei era (reign of Akihito) started in 1989 and still goes on (1989 is Heisei year 1, 2006 is Heisei year 18). The 1, 2 or 3 characters directly behind the characters with the reign name give the year number in Japanese. The last character means "year".
