Japan - Osaka 1878 (year 11) Japan 1 Yen 1878 Meiji 11 silver dragon - Osaka mint - Japanese silver yen with chopmarks - KM Y# A25.2 JNDA 01-10 VF-VF+

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Japan, 1 yen, silver, Meiji year 11 which is 1878, struck at the Osaka mint.

Obverse: a dragon coiled within a beaded circle. Above it the Japanese legend reads Great Japan and year eleven of Meiji. Below runs the English legend 416 ONE YEN 900, where 416 is the weight in grains and 900 is the silver fineness.

Reverse: the value one yen in a wreath of paulownia and chrysanthemum, with the imperial chrysanthemum crest above. The dies were cut by Kano Natsuo.

Reference: KM Y# A25.2, JNDA 01-10, JC 09-10-1.

Japan began the yen in 1871 as the new money of the Meiji reforms. The silver yen was a large trade coin, close in weight and size to the Spanish and Mexican silver dollars that merchants across Asia already trusted. This piece came from the mint at Osaka in Meiji year 11, and the mint struck 856378 of them that year. The small punched marks on the coin are chopmarks. Chinese and other merchants stamped these to show they had tested the silver, so the marks are a quiet record of the coin's working life in the trade of East Asia.

vanzandwijkmunten: because one coin is never enough.

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Coins have been part of my life for almost thirty years. It started with the things I found in the ground as a boy, and it never stopped. First the searching, then the reading and figuring out, and the collecting. Dealing came much later, and even though it is how I make my living now, I still enjoy looking at every piece the way a collector does.

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Kind regards, Vincent

vanzandwijkmunten: Because one coin is never enough

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