Japan error coins

I was playing around with my photo folders and pulled these together.

A rotated die--bought it at a show in Tokyo. It's not in the catalog yet and NGC declined to slab it as such. (The white blob in the picture is where I wrote on the slab so it wouldn't get overlooked). Not so good picture shows a rotated vs. normal orientation in the slab using the slab landmarks.





Another pick up from Tokyo. This one is in the JNDA catalog, but again, not slabbed as a variety by NGC (it's not in Krause...PCGS might do it I suppose as they've been using the JNDA #s). Also an early cell phone picture.




A new buy from eBay just arrived. The first shot with the slip of paper showing the defect is kind of neat. The seller had that paper in his shot, and it stayed put all the way from Tokyo to New York to Eugene Oregon (what was the USPS doing????) and to me in SW Virginia. I got one picture and knocked it out. Oops.






and going back a few more years, this is a shot I made of a little 5 sen from the first year of manufacture--1870/Meiji 3. I've seen this clashing on more than one of these, which I suppose were part of the 'growing pains' of modern coinage.

 

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The mail was good to me today (technically yesterday by a few minutes). My Japanese error coin collection has vastly increased...by three pieces. I missed out on an off metal strike, but got the following:

Another great lamination error, residing in an NGC XF-40/error slab:


A neat off center hole strike on a modern (1981) 50 yen in an NGC AU-58 (perhaps a tad generous):


And this really cool one in an ACCA slab (http://www.accacoin.com/home/home00/index.aspx) Some of the label is in English, some is not. XF details, mint error. I bought from a Japanese source and noticed this company's slabs for a lot of the problem coins. Slab aside, the coin is pretty cool.

 

Nice coins Stork!

Japan has very low rates of error coins. I have seen some interesting error coins such as brockage, off center, die rotation. Of course, the price tag is another world. Some may not realize but Japan Mint does have a machine to electronically check if all struck coins are struck to specification. Hence it is extremely rare for error coins to slip past. There is a video somewhere on youtube that shows this.

That said, I have been looking for Japanese error coins that didn't cost me an arm or leg. WWII coins are more commonly found with defects which I will leave that aside for now.

1659 - 1685 Nagasaki Boeki-sen (Genho Tsuho) misalignment


1784-88 Sendai tsuho with cud


1885 1 sen rotation die error. Nearly missed this one as I was about to sell it as junk


1946 50 sen die clash - rays under feathers


1964 5 yen hole misalignment


I have not been actively looking but there can be bargains to be found if one looks hard enough.

 

Cool group! The 1946 rays/feathers has even made it into the JNDA with a lofty price tag.

I was lucky enough to attend the big show in Tokyo a couple times and remember a guy specializing in errors which is IIRC where I got both the rays clash and the rotated die 50 sen. Sure wish I'd loaded up on more...but they were pricey and I wasn't interested much back then.

 

Here's a bit of a rotated die one. In getting this coin ready for the counting backwards thread I noticed it. Not too dramatic but these were on my brain. The NGC prongs are useful markers!



Somewhere in a drawer I have just about every 5 yen coin I ever got in change over the course of 2 years (strung them all together). I need to dig those out and see if there are any misaligned holes. All I ever looked for before was the old fashioned kaisho/script lettering. Maybe there will be a treasure. Or not considering they are more modern and the quality control!

 

Got another one...this time a reverse brockage in a bit of 'well lived' condition.

 

Very nice coins. I do love error coins especially off center and DDO/DDR. Dobt have any japan pieces but several chinese UK and South/Central American.

Ebay is a great place for cheap moderns that people dont check for errors too often. I bought a nice China DD from there.

On a side note Stork PCGS is alot better at listing errors ect even if its a minor variety.

 

I'll have to look more closely. PCGS is definitely doing more varieties and is going back to pre-Meiji vs. NGC. I tend to have more NGC just because of the earlier world domination thing they had going, but PCGS is definitely moving up. Sadly some of the coins have been more questionable in the numerical grades, but not always.

I sent two into NGC back in the day and neither got the designation...including the clashed 50 sen that is in the JNDA. PCGS is using the JNDA so I'm sure that one would make it. The other was the 175 degree rotated one, not as sure for that one.

Oh well, the 'flip side' of the 2 sen brockage. From the same seller, I also got a 1/2 sen obverse. I'd enquired about a 1 sen but he'd sold it, and offered me one of these instead. Obviously I got both .



Next I'll go through my photos for some doubling. I know there's some on my gold 1 yen. And for the older coins there are often some impressive die cracks to be seen too.

 

Generally i email and ask them before sending it in to see If they will attribute the error. If not i do same with pcgs

 

With regards to the die rotation for the Meiji coins, I believe the mintmasters struggled to define the exact orientation.

There are two alignment that I've noticed - it's either aligned with the two dots on the bottom or the dot on the top. Sometimes it is aligned against the character "Mei" of Meiji. This is after going through after 100+ coins. I can't remember which is more significant but it's certainly there. As of why I believe this is the case, the error coin that I found was aligned to a different dot.

A good example is as follow:

Aligned to the two dots on the bottom



Aligned to the dot in between "Great Japan" and "Meiji"



Aligned to the dot in between "Meiji xx year" and "1 sen"



As such, I'm afraid to say that Stock's stunning 1 sen is not an error.

 

That makes perfect sense. I was applying my Western eye to the issue, and those pesky white prongs accentuated it.

A quick perusal of the first 20 NGC/pronged coins I found at Heritage fit that. There is a bias towards higher denominations (50 sen and higher) but of the 20 all but 3 were aligned using the denomination centered at the '6 o'clock' position and a medallic orientation.

Of the three that were different, two were gold 2 yen pieces and one was a 1 yen silver...and all were M.3/1870. For all three the chrysanthemum crest is aligned with that third dot.

Turns out it's very easy to figure out using the full slab views!

On another note, here is my last newp--another brockage, an obverse 1/2 sen.



I'm not supposed to be buying much right now given a rather large budget buster last month...BUT I've been eyeing a brockage coin on a certain website for AGES. Upon stumbling on a sale of Dr. Norman Jacobs (of Jacobs and Vermeule fame) in the Heritage archives, lo and behold there was a two piece brockage lot that appeared to be the source of the coin in question.

'Obviously' this was a situation that called for an immediate purchase using the 'emergency coin cash stash' . Sadly, when the seller went to ship it he realized that the coin was either mislaid or previously sold and the site hadn't been updated (did I mention the 'ages' I'd been watching it part?).

The seller did offer one of the other two brockage coins he owned in place of the missing 1 sen...and, again 'obviously' I couldn't pick just one...how would I decide???? So the 'emergency coin stash' took a second hit and both were purchased.

 

Very nice! Soon you'll find a 1 sen brockage coin to complete this fantastic copper set! That said, I have seen a brokage 1 rin - this is significantly rare.

 

Great coins. I love brockage coins especially on Chinese and Japanese coins. I have a tough time finding Japanese errors though.

 

Picked up a few more, pictures pending on a couple. Some more lamination error types and this one was just a neat off center hole. Saw an auction for a modern 5 yen coin where the hole was not punched at all. It went for a huge sum.

This one was a fairly low price pick up from eBay, and clearly needs a prolonged acetone soak.

 

And one more new type and newly arrived from a Japanese auction. Had to ask questions/apply google-fu as I am not so versed in errors, but this looks pretty legit it turns out.

 

Nice Curved Clip.. Blakesley Effect shows very well

 

Another new one--

 

That green is worrisome.

What is it struck through?

 

No idea--I'm a big newbie when it comes to error coins. I only jumped on it as it actually was labelled as such. There's a similar coin one ebay I didn't have the nerve to pull the trigger on due to my inexperience with errors.

Not a fan of the green either, the overseas auction photos were a bit on the 'suckish' side. I've been generally happy with the outcomes of my purchases from that house, and honestly, I bought it as an error and not for the grade.

I'm toying with ideal of sending it to NCS to, at the very least, make sure it's not a growing problem. Not sure it's a 'smart' move, but then again, I've been known to send in pocket change for grading just because.

At least the 10 sen pictured above I didn't worry about working a bit on myself (that means acetone). Here it is currently, after a bit of acetone:


I'll try again as there's a bit of green left at 9-10 o'clock. But, I don't want to touch copper. Waaayyy beyond my comfort zone (which consists of acetone and not-copper/bronze). Perhaps I should invest in verdi-care or whatever it's called and play around a bit. Even so, I'm not practicing on the new coin .

 

What do y’all think of this 1/2 Sen I discovered in a bulk coin lot I had purchased?