My cousin is traveling the world right now and is sending me notes and currency. She sent me quite a few Japanese coins. I know they use a different dating system than we do, but I can't read Japanese script. Does anyone know of a website to which I can go to compare what I have?
The lioncoins site is the best tutorial on the internet for Japanese coin dating. You should be able to read the denominations as will as the dates with some help from that site. Feel free to post pictures here, or PM them to me, if you need any additional information about any of the Japanese, Chinese or Korean money you have.
If you learn how to read Japanese numbers and learn the Kanji for the various reigns, it's not too hard to date them. More modern ones, they will sometimes put the date in Arabic numberals rather than Japanese (but still refer to a Japanese reign date, not a Western date). Since modern Japanese coins were minted, the reigns were: Meiji: 1868-1912 Taisho: 1912-1926 Showa: 1926-1989 Heisei: 1989- present For example a coin dated Meiji 8 would have been minted in 1875. Since the Meiji era the years are synced to the Western calendar, so any year begins with January 1 (or the day the emperor ascends to the throne) and ends with December 31 (or the day the emperor dies). Ths year is Heisei 19. That guide that's posted should help you figure out the dating, not too hard once you get the hang of it.
