Owner Comments:

JNDA 01-14.

'Dragon 50 sen (silver)'

Diameter 30.90 mm
.800 fine silver
13.48 grams

The dragon 50 sen was minted non-continuously from Meiji 6 (1873) to Meiji 38 (1905). NGC breaks them into subsets by century along the conventions of the KM catalog. However the standard Japanese reference (Japanese Numismatic Dealer Association or JNDA) catalogs them under a single number.

The obverse of the coin features a dragon (representative of the Emperor) clutching a pearl. The dragon is within a beaded circle which is surrounded by kanji indicating the issuing authority ('Dai Nippon'/Great Japan) and the regnal year. Also the denomination in western script.

The reverse features the Imperial Chrysanthemum Crest centered at the top, with a wreath of paulownia (left) and chrysanthemum (right) foliage branches tied with a ribbon.

Within the wreath is the denomination vertically aligned in kanji.

Varieties are noted in the JNDA. For 1873 the variety is based on calligraphy differences with one of the characters. Other years are notable for either an upward or downward facing cut to the stem on the left. The years vary in which type is the scarcer of the two.

Several years have extremely small mintages and are scarce to the point of being nearly unobtainable to the typical collector.


For this coin, the year M6 (1873) has variants based on the length of stroke on the nen/year character. This coin is labeled 'long' by NGC, but is really the more common short stroke variant. The coin has since been placed in a correct holder.