I've been saving world coins for a number of years, but just started to try to sort, classify and identify them. The asian ones are the most difficult as many do not contain any english readable information. The attached pictures show what I believe to be a Japanese coin, and I can make out 4 of the characters which read from left to right "year 9 0 4". It has what I belive to be a lotus flower on one side and I'm at a loss to identify the image on the other side. The coin is round and about the size of a quarter, and is probably made of nicket or an alloy of it. I'd appreciate any help in identifying the value of the coin, country of origin if not Japanese, and the year it was made. Thanks for any consideration....
You identified the four characters correctly but you are reading them in the wrong direction! :smile The coin is actually written in Chinese, not Japanese, and on this particular coin the inscriptions are read from right to left. The inscription at the top reads zhong hua min guo si shi jiu nian which translates as "the 49th year of the Republic of China". Your reading of "year 9 0 4" is actually "four ten nine" which is 49. The 49th year of the Republic of China is the year 1960. The inscription at the bottom is tai wan yin hang which is the "Bank of Taiwan" so the coin is from Taiwan as opposed to mainland China (People's Republic of China). The inscription on the other side of the coin is read top to bottom as yi yuan which is the denomination "one yuan". Gary
Thanks Thanks Gary. I guess Taiwanese and Japanese share some of the same numbering systems. Glad to know I am starting to understand the numbers anyway. I probably wouldn't have guessed Taiwan, and I did check China but it didn't look like any of theirs. The Taiwanese people would probably chastise me for not looking at them as the same but separate country....Bill
