I was doing a check of the Japanese copper coins that I had and found something very interesting. In general most of the die rotation of Japanese coins were this: which means that it is usually orientated to the dot at the top. Occasionally there are some that are orientated to the bottom two dots at the bottom, which is about 5 degrees rotation: Note that these coins were all minted in coin orientation, i.e. up and down when you flip the coin sideways. Now this is the largest error of all: Only seen in numismatic literature, Japanese error coins are exceedingly RARE if you don't believe in me! And to think that I was about to sell the whole lot as scrap copper coins does shudder me for a bit. :hammer:
WOW! With a mintage of almost 47-million, the Meiji 18 (1885) sen in that condition is normally only worth scrap price, but that one's the most significant rotated Japanese die I've ever seen, and you were definitely right to pull it back. Are those really "V" scales on the dragon? With all the wear the picture gives an impression that they are square.
hontonai, yes, it's definately "V" scales, it's the corrosion that pretty much ate most of the details of that coin. I actually found this coin while I was attempting a type set with the corroded coins I had - sounds ridiciously absurd but otherwise I would have missed this coin completely. I wouldn't have also found such interesting die rotation within this batch of corroded coins. I am actually quite shocked over finding this coin in a batch of approximately 60ish such sen. How lucky one get? I guess it does pay to take a good look at your coins regardless of how corroded or damaged they can be. All I need is the larger variety "four" of Meiji 14 to complete that list of Meiji 1 sen dragon coins. Here is a list of Japanese modern coins that I have created: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/japantype/japantype_modern.htm
I have four different dealers looking for one! Very impressive, especially the generally higher than average quality of your aluminum coins.
hontonai, the big variety "4" is available easily if you are willing to fork out 100+ dollars for a VF+ coin, which I don't agree with. One example here: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/icoins/674498/667692/825261/
