Comments | whitetail: A silver Yen

whitetail

A silver Yen

Jan 30, 2010 07:13

Little known fact: when the Japanese Yen was first devised as a national currency during the reign of the Emperor Meiji, the One Yen coin was essentially the same size and purity as the U.S. silver dollar.

A silver Yen, minted 1894.

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old money, history

Comments 11

mondhasen January 30 2010, 18:05:44 UTC

Fascinating! Today the yen 'converts' to approximately .01 US dollars (depending on the site). What happened?!

Is that your coin? I've got a coin collection of sorts, as well.

whitetail January 30 2010, 21:21:40 UTC

What happened?!

A depression and two world wars. This kind of devaluation happened to a lot of countries' currencies, but it hit Japan's especially hard.

Is that your coin?

No, though I have a couple just like it. ^^

There also used to be a coin denomination called the Sen (1/100th of a Yen), which was equivalent to our cent, and even a Rin, which was a 1/10 of a Sen (same as our Mill).

albear January 30 2010, 20:42:51 UTC

Wow! that's a nice coin! When I used to be a serious coin collector in my early teens, I acquired a 1880 and a 1885 Morgan silver dollar coins for $12.00 bucks in 83' I bought them for $12.00 bucks. But I was a real dumbass and ended up selling them for $6.00 each in 88' for NES Legend Of Zelda money! :| Damn vidi-games! Luckily I don't waste my money on those things. By the way, I got my vidi-game at the Montgomery Ward store in Whittier Cal. :| to this day, I wish I would have kept my Morgans :(

whitetail January 30 2010, 21:45:51 UTC

*smiles* Since my folks used to go to Vegas almost every month, I had a ton of silver dollars when I was a kid. Ironically, I sold most of mine just around the time you acquired yours - to get money to move up here. Turned out I didn't need to sell them after all (like my Mustang). I've always regretted that major purge of my old treasures. Unfortunately, I see another major belongings purge coming out of financial necessity now. Among the first to go will be my 14th century katana. I've never posted about that here, though I've thought about doing so many times...

rockopup January 30 2010, 21:23:36 UTC

Man, they have such awesome looking coinage! i really dig the dragon design on the front there. Apparently this coin is from the 27th year of the Meiji Period (1895)

whitetail January 30 2010, 21:36:54 UTC

*smiles* I always wanted a gold Koban, too, but my dad could never afford one. (He bought almost all my Japan coin collection for me.) ^^

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rockopup January 31 2010, 00:23:52 UTC

i'll buy that for a ryo! ;D

equinas January 30 2010, 21:49:03 UTC

Cool. Do you collect currencies? I built a bar with all the currencies I collected from 20 years of world travel sealed into it under epoxy resin. Looks pretty cool:

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whitetail January 30 2010, 21:55:56 UTC

Wow, that's really neat! I did acquire some foreign paper currencies when I was younger, but it never became a real specialty, like my old English and Roman coin collections...

equinas January 30 2010, 21:57:48 UTC

I was trying to post the pic, I think it will work here:

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sandy_hedges February 1 2010, 01:50:49 UTC

I've looked around for this coin but they always want $150 for one in bad condition. It's such an interesting looking coin too.