Hi, Recently found some coins , don't know if they are real. Anyone can help to verify ? Please check out the attach photo.
I did a search and is " yen Meiji year 3" I don't have a scale to weight it. But normally for a real coins what is the weight ?
The crossed flags are from some Chinese coins of the early republic, what you have is probably what is commonly called a "fantasy" piece, the front is a Japanese Yen, the rear looks like a mash up of a Chinese (the crossed flags) and Japanese (the chrysanthemum) designs.
Nope, although the crossed flag motif does appear on some coins of the Chinese areas under Japanese occupation in the 1930-40s. One side is a close variant of the 1 yen coin circulated from 1874-1914. The real ones didn't have the Japanese characters for the denomination on the obverse, instead having the English inscription "416 . ONE YEN . 900", to indicate grains of silver, value, and fineness. The Meiji 3 date equates to 1870, four years before the basic design was adopted. The outer circle surrounding the flags is a reasonably close copy of the outer perimeter of the reverse on the first silver yen ever produced, which was dated Meiji 3.
Some version of the crossed flags is found on Japanese coins, for example early Meiji gold pieces such as this http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15185.html But yes the piece in the first post is a modern fantasy. It is listed in "Unusual World Coins" under Japan as X# 15. The rest of the pieces are modern copies and are some of the most commonly seen types too.
