Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;jamesicus, post: 2775760, member: 14873&quot;]I am afraid that falls under the heading &quot;old wives tale&quot; Harley. Let me hasten to say that _ may _ have happened, but I have not encountered that in fifty six years of collecting and researching Nihonto (Japanese Samurai swords -- I lived in Japan during the early 1960s). I do not want to pursue this by hijacking this thread or causing &quot;thread drift&quot;, but I thought it might be of general interest and contribute to the discussion -- so I will try and make this a &quot;one time&quot; subject post.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please visit my page: <a href="http://jp29.org/nihkoshover.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://jp29.org/nihkoshover.htm" rel="nofollow">http://jp29.org/nihkoshover.htm</a> -- I think it explains why I think it would be most unlikely for coins to have been used as part of the handles on Nihonto.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>During the early 1960s in Japan an old sword period (AD 900-1596) short sword (Tanto) blade in a plain wooden storage scabbard (Shirasaya) made by a known sword smith (kaji) and in good polish cost somewhere around 29,000 yen/$95 (prevailing exchange rate=360 yen to the US dollar) -- just like this blade: <a href="http://jp29.org/nihtantokanekado.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://jp29.org/nihtantokanekado.htm" rel="nofollow">http://jp29.org/nihtantokanekado.htm</a> - that blade today would probably sell in the $2000 to $3000 range. Today a Koto blade in a shirasaya by a famous maker -- even contemporaneously re-worked/re-purposed with natural blemishes -- similar to the one here: <a href="http://jp29.org/nihnagamaki.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://jp29.org/nihnagamaki.htm" rel="nofollow">http://jp29.org/nihnagamaki.htm</a> -- may sell for several thousand dollars. Fully mounted (in koshirae) koto period blades by famous makers in full polish often sell in the multiple hundred thousand dollar range these days.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in