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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hookman, post: 3440060, member: 99642&quot;]At the bottom of the coin you can see a box shaped character with a flat line to the right of it, all of that between 2 dots.&nbsp; The flat line means 1, the box means Yen, so the coin is a 1 Yen.</p><p>To know the year you have to 1) Decipher the era, 2) Decipher the year of the era, each era starts at a different year of our calendar.</p><p>To read the coin, go right from the symbols I&#039;ve explained and you&#039;ll see 4 symbols past the dot. The first simply means &quot;year&quot;, the second means 3, the next 2 are the symbols for the Meiji era. You read old Japanese from right to left, so you have Meiji era third year.</p><p>The era on this coin is Meiji. The year is 3. The Meiji era started in 1867, so add 3 and subtract 1, which gives you 1869.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s all explained in the link I gave you.</p><p><br /></p><p>The remaining 3 symbols simply mean &quot; Great Japan &quot;. </p><p>The age of the coin is why there is no English on it. Newer coins also have English. The lack of English is a good indicator that the coin is real.</p><p><br /></p><p>Be aware that the Chinese are counterfeiting <i>everything</i> these days. I think the coin is good but I&#039;m only going off of the pix and the weight and size you gave us. </p><p>If you have access to an X-ray gun, test the silver. If there&#039;s a Gold and Silver buyer near by, they should have a gun and shoot it for you. If not, maybe a touchstone and acid test. The silver should be .900 fine.&nbsp; </p><p>This coin is basically a Japanese Trade Dollar. Almost the same size and weight as everyone else&#039;s Trade Dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>You know, I&#039;m thinking &quot; Why doesn&#039;t a coin this old have more wear on it? &quot;</p><p>Maybe the coin has been put up somewhere all these years...or maybe it is a counterfeit.</p><p>Look at the rims. Does it look like they&#039;ve been rolled over....or something?</p><p><br /></p><p>I would get that coin tested for silver content, right away.&nbsp; Have you tested it with a magnet yet?&nbsp; That&#039;s the first thing you do with a silver coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, Good Luck with it.&nbsp; Let us know how it turns out.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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