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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gxseries, post: 26657213, member: 4373&quot;]Just when I thought I knew a bit about Japanese coinage, I stumbled upon an interesting article. Out of all possible places to research, it&#039;s wikipedia. Reason why I am posting in the US forum? Of course, it has to be related to the US!</p><p><br /></p><p>Quick introduction. Japan Mint in Osaka was established in 1871 (Meiji 4). Note of the timeline - Japan at this time was using a different calendar called Tenpo calendar (I did not know this!). As Japan was modernizing it&#039;s coinage, it hired expertise from England. Mint equipment is second hand as it came from a very short lived mint (1866 - 1868) in Hong Kong (when it was a British colony). This is where the timeline gets confusing.&nbsp; There are coins dated Meiji 3 (1870) - maybe to illustrate that this was the original planned year? Maybe it did happen in 1870 because of the Tenpo calander? Need to do more research... Back to topic. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The amount of coins Japan mint supposedly struck is impressive with a wide array of coins in 1870 - 1871. 1/2 sen, 1 sen, 2 sen, 5 sen (2 types!), 10 sen, 20 sen, 50 sen, 1 yen (silver), 1 yen (gold - dated 1871), 2 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen and 20 yen. Quite an impressive feat to issue 14 different types of coins for a brand new mint! (1 rin coin was struck later in 1873) The big question is - were all of them struck in Osaka Mint...? </p><p><br /></p><p>A line popped up when I was reading about Japanese 5 yen. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>Five yen coins were first struck in gold for the Japanese government in 1870 at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint" rel="nofollow">San Francisco Mint</a>. During this time a new mint was being established at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka" rel="nofollow">Osaka</a>, which did not receive the gold bullion needed for coinage until the following year.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_yen_coin" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_yen_coin" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_yen_coin</a></p><p><br /></p><p>This is the first time I read US mint struck coins for Japan. Wow. The question is why? Why not from Britain when the Meiji government struck a deal to setup &#039;new&#039; mint in Japan? The question doesn&#039;t end there - if there wasn&#039;t enough gold bullion to struck the first Japan machine struck gold coins, did San Francisco mint actually struck more than just 5 yen gold coins? </p><p><br /></p><p>Have been doing some research and early San Francisco mint annual report has some interesting reports about coinage from overseas, in fact VERY detailed. Oddly I am struggling to find the exact reference of SF mint minting gold coins for Japan. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/united-states-mint-annual-report-9404?browse=1870s#701446" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/united-states-mint-annual-report-9404?browse=1870s#701446" rel="nofollow">https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/united-states-mint-annual-report-9404?browse=1870s#701446</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The relationship between SF mint and Japan doesn&#039;t quite end there... There is a rather rare if not unique mint error quarter. 1972 S quarter overstruck over Japan 10 yen (!). Error coin from Mike Byers</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://minterrornews.com/issue27.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://minterrornews.com/issue27.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://minterrornews.com/issue27.pdf</a></p><p><br /></p><p><i>1972-S PROOF 25c struck on an already Japanese 10 Yen. A proof double denomination on a foreign struck coin, Only 1 known PCGS. The US has never officially minted any coins for Japan. This coin was probably snuck into the Mint, overstamped and the secreted out of the San Francisco facility</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Did San Francisco mint strike coins for Japan? I thought I would be able to find it in US mint report but it seems to be illusive. This got me intrigued. Maybe someone can add more information![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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