My wife told me recently that she had seen something about Japanese 10 yen coins dated Showa 33 (1958) either being worth more than usual or that a variety exists that is worth a premium. Anyone know anything about this?
Looking at the Krause price guide (also NGC Price Guide) looks like there is a decent premium for BU coins, but no varieties mentioned.
That Year 33 10 Yen coin is hard to come by in Mint State. The hard years for the 10 Yen, just from my own subjective viewpoint of trying to obtain decent, Mint State examples of these coins (from its First Year, 1951 to 1980) are: Year 30, 1955 (harder than you think, and possibly the hardest! I'm still looking for one) Year 32, 1957 (the "big" key date, and hard to find in Mint State, but I finally found a good RB example. Try to find a graded Red one that doesn't set you back three bills. Good luck...) Year 33, 1958 (another tough one to find, let alone in Red). Year 25, 1951 (Can be found in MS, but getting harder. Red examples are sooo hard to find). And don't get me started on the 1 Yen and 5 Yen coins! Surprisingly, the ones that I find to be the least common anywhere among these two coins are the 1960, 1961 and 1962! And these aren't even considered key.
If collectors ever decide to collect modern Japan most people are going to have to settle for mostly AU's and XF's. These aren't readily available now either (most coins are in atrocious condition) but if the price goes up the lower grades will come out of the woodwork. The Uncs are gone but there are a few XF's scattered all over the world carried home by foreign tourists.
I'm pretty sure your wife would have meant that it had a reeded edge instead of the normal smooth edge. This is the last year it had reeded edge before it was switched to smooth edge in 1959. As far as I am aware, there is no 1958 10 yen coin with smooth edge. There is however a rather scarce variety struck in 1986 where some minor modification was done to the Phoenix Hall temple. This is supposedly considered as a mule as some 1985 dies were used and is very scarce to rare in UNC condition. This discovery was only found quite recently in the last decade or so.
Well, I went to a coin show today.. ...AND I GOT LUCKY: Year 32 (1957) 5 Yen coin in Mint State and Year 30 (1955) 10 Yen coin in Mint State
I was in Japan in the 80's and remember getting a 10 yen coin out of a vending machine as change and noticing that it was different from others I had seen, but I don't really remember what was different about it. I bet it was a reeded edge coin.
