Japan Type Set #7460

Set Description




A type set of Japanese coins modeled after the Dansco #7460 “Japan Type Set” album.

The album was initially published in 1966, followed by an updated edition that included the new style 50 and 100 yen coins as well as the 1970 Expo Commemorative.

The album contains the modern style Japanese coinage dating from the third year of the Meiji reign or era (1870) through the 45th year of the Showa era (1970). Though there are coins dated M2 (1869) those were not included in the album as they were pattern issues and thus outside the scope of the album. Gold coinage was also not included in this album.

This link is to the website page that has pictures of the physical Dansco album that this graded set is modeled after:

http://www.starcityhomer.com/dansco-japan-type-set.html
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‘Modern’ Japanese coins are those that were minted after the Meiji Restoration when a new, standardized, monetary system was established. This included the importation of Western style equipment and specialists, and starting to mint coins that were made to a specific weight and fineness standard.

‘Current’ coinage refers to coins minted under the auspices of the current government which was established by constitution after WWII. This includes the coins circulating now but there are several obsolete issues as well.

The initial modern coins bore the legend ‘Dai Nippon’ which basically translates to ‘Great Japan’. The legend was changed to ‘Nippon koku’ or ‘Country of Japan’ on the current coinage. There are several interim coins minted after the war, but before the constitution was adopted, that bear ‘Nippon seifu’ or ‘Government of Japan’.
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This set is organized such that the slots in the virtual set reflects the spaces in the Dansco album in the order in which they appear. Basically these are organized by era (Meiji, Taisho and Showa), then by denomination, date and types.
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‘JNDA’ refers to the Japan Numismatic Dealers Association, which publishes an annual catalog of coins and notes. Its organization is considered the standard reference. The catalog has coin mintage and details, commentary, and serves as a price guide. It was a valuable source of information for this set. The catalog is written primarily in Japanese, but there is enough English to understand the basic information and descriptions.
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Of note, several coins that occupy different slots in this set share a JNDA number and description. Several issues cataloged by the JNDA may span two eras or may have minor design changes that are ‘lumped’ together (such as going from square shaped to 'sharp' shaped dragon scales). The Dansco designers opted to ‘split’ these issues instead. Krause (and NGC in its Registry organization) tends to split eras by century as well.

As this is the ‘7460 set’, the Dansco version of organization is used here.
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Dates are primarily listed by the regnal era dating used in Japan with reference to the corresponding Gregorian date.

An explanation of Japanese coin dating can be found in several places on the internet. Mine is here:

http://www.starcityhomer.com/japan-coin-dating-etc.html

(the website is still adding content but the coin dating/legend page is complete).
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Three minor modifications have been made to this set vs. the 7460.

The first is the addition of an extra slot to allow for both versions of the ‘gin’ marked coins (an explanation of gin marks is given under the individual coin’s description).

The second modification is that the slots have been partially re-titled. Basically the slot descriptions have been expanded to show more information, primarily by adding the JNDA English descriptors. Minor printing or information errors are indicated, but otherwise the slots remain intact and in the same order of appearance.

Third, I used a small cheat for one coin—the currently circulating 50 yen coin. I don’t have a graded example for the years included in the album. In fact there are less than 10 examples graded by NGC that do fall within the dating parameters (likely because this is quite literally pocket change). Eventually I will replace it with a graded version from the correct date range.
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Varieties are not required for this set as they are not included as part of the Dansco album—though individual coins are noted as such in the comments section if that coin happens to be an example of one (eg. deep vs. shallow dragon scales, connected vs. separated characters, etc).
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Regarding the three slots listed as ‘want’ coins (vs. owned):

My two ‘gin’ marked yen coins and my trade dollar have not been graded. Both yen coins can kindly be called ‘well scrubbed’ and are not good enough examples to warrant grading. The trade dollar suffered a much more gentle cleaning but has not yet had a ‘grading event’—though it is appealing enough and valuable enough that it will likely be sent in at some point.

Because they are ungraded the coins have been added to the set as 'want'. This made it possible to populate the comment section with pictures and descriptive information.
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Set Goals
The goal for this set is to mirror the Dansco #7460 ‘Japan Type Set’ album with high quality graded coins.

My Japanese coin collecting was sparked when I was living in Japan and developed an interest in the money I was using on a daily basis. I was lucky enough to find the Dansco type set album (they are long out of print and quite scarce) and my collecting started in earnest with my attempts to fill it.

As the overall collection began to include higher grades, conditional rarities or more valuable coins, many coins were obtained that were graded in third party slabs. The paper album has pretty nice coins, but frankly, some coins were just too nice or had too reactive a metal to be placed in the somewhat elderly album.

The desire to avoid ‘cracking’ the nicer coins resulted in this mirror set idea. So, one type set resides in the album, and the second set is represented here. The coins remain in their protective slabs (inside their protective Intercept bags and inside an Intercept box).
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A future project could include the circulation and commemorative coins through the current Emperor and date. Optimistically a future set could be extended to include varieties and even include gold coinage as well.

However, for now, the goals are to complete the final slots for the virtual representation of a complete #7460 album using graded coins and to improve the examples when able.
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