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Message:: [QUOTE="satootoko, post: 71437, member: 669"]Hi rubykristal, and welcome to the forum. A better place to have posted this inquiry would have been the World & Ancient forum, where it would  have been certain to attract the attention of several experts.  Since it has been correctly answered, I won't bother moving it. The modern Japanese coin dating system starts with "Gan Nen" or "First Year" in the initial year of an Emperor's reign, and then goes to "Year 2", "Year 3", etc.  Most coins are dated in Japanese characters. "Showa" was the name for Emperor Hirohito's reign.  His son, present Emperor Akihito, chose "Heisei" as the name for his reign, which began in 1989.  As a result, in the early part of that year coins were minted with the date Showa 64, and in the final months the date was Heisei Gan. The western numerals were first used in Showa 42 (1967) when the ¥50 coin was redesigned, and the precedent was followed in Showa 43 (1968), with the new cu-ni ¥100 coins.  Other than a few commemoratives, all other Japanese coins continue to use Japanese characters for dating. There is a chart of the Japanese numbers in Krause, but<a href="http://www.lioncoins.com/nippon.htm#some" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.lioncoins.com/nippon.htm#some" rel="nofollow">>> click here <<</a> for an excellent, easy to understand, explanation of the dating system, the numbers, and the Nengo (regnal names).[/QUOTE]