doug2222usa

Current Japanese money, items as shown total 3000 Yen, i.e., one 1000 Yen bill and four 500 Yen coins. On the xe.com foreign exchange website, that's equal to US $37.70 on July 10.Price, US $25 postpaid. PayPal, check, or money order; no cash please. Shipped ONLY to the United States.

In the Community forum (only), I can't seem to find (or read) previous posts, only the latest one. What am I doing wrong?

You can make very good coin images with a scanner if you don't have a camera with the macro feature.

Use 600dpi, set your scanning area only slightly larger than the coin; do not use the entire scanner glass as your scanning area and then crop away all the excess, that makes for poor images. I would do four coins at a time, scanning area about 3 x 3 inches, down in the baseline corner. You may need to lighten your images a little bit.

Here is an excellent website: www.condertokens.net -- an immense amount of information and top-quality images.

Seems odd to me that neither of the two heads (of Elizabeth) seem to be distorted, and no peripheral flows evident either.

Is that considered a spiel-marke piece? Or just an advertising token?

It looks very much like Krause Saudi Arabia KM #36, a "guinea" gold trade coin. The Arabic date is 1370, which corresponds to AD 1950. I must be blind, because I don't see any MOM anywhere. KM #36 contains 0.2355 Troy ounce of gold and it weighs 7.9881 grams.

I have no idea if it's genuine. You can probably find similar pieces on eBay now that you have the Krause number.

Regarding "sharing" -- Grandma knew how to "share" things: two boys, one pie. One boy got to cut the pie in half, the other boy got first choice of pieces. Result, absolute mathematical precision.

Krause publishes catalogs for foreign banknotes, and if your library doesn't have a copy, they can get it by interlibrary loan so that you don't have to buy it. Certainly the several George V notes I saw will have a substantial premium. And yes, condition matters, but there's a buyer for every grade. Similar-looking notes are usually identified by year dates or by signature varieties. Stack's is having a foreign banknote auction in January (I consigned all my British notes) and that catalog and its prices realized would be worth having, to compare with "catalog" values. The market for currency seems to be excellent right now.

The word "urgent" caught my eye, but I don't even see a question. Hello?

Just to provide the full picture, the bronze 2 cent piece (1864-1873) was the first coin to bear the motto "In God We Trust." Despite being authorized by the Act of April 22, 1864, the motto did not appear on cents until the new Lincoln design of 1909. Neither of the first regular commemorative coins (1892-93 Columbian Half Dollar and 1893 Isabella Quarter) had the motto.

Krause is not the best source in the world for Oriental varieties, but the 1898 1/4 yang is listed there, with the note, "Many varieties of characters size and style exist for Year 2 coins..." Then it goes on to say, "[larger circle around dragon], ...counterfeits made on machinery supplied by the Japanese. These counterfeits were authorized for circulation by the Korean Government..."

If I could tell how big it was, and I can't, I'd have a better guess. I think it is toy money from a child's game. Most I've seen previously are thin aluminum.

Diameter, yes; weight, iffy. No one knows what a token or medal or ancient "should" weigh, so a comparison is seldom possible.

I agree with KoRnholio and gxseries. The 1879 for sure, with the extra-wide rim.

Here is an attribution of the word "kaicap..."

Herod Philip II 4 BC–34 AD

The coins of Herod Philip II are mostly bronze of middle-size. He was the first Jewish ruler to put portraits of himself and the Roman Emperors on his coinage. An early issue has a portrait of the Emperor Augustus, with the Greek inscription 'KAICAPI CEBACTΩ' on the obverse, and 'ΦΙΛΙΠΠΌΎ ΤΕΤΡΆΡΧΌΎ' on the reverse.

British (and U.S.!!) Trade Dollars are among the Chinese counterfeiters' favorites. Be careful.

Three different mintmarks and you can't tell them apart? I don't understand the question. But this provides a partial identification, the "sc" mintmark has lines under the horse, the "w" and "c" mintmarks don't.

I think you'll find it's a 1992 "2 nuevo pesos," KM #551. Described as "...bi-metallic aluminum-bronze center in stainless steel ring. 23mm. Obv. National arms, eagle left within circle. Rev. Value and date within circle and various emblems around border."

The coin is KM-49, a $5 coin struck in copper-nickel. A very similar Proof $50 coin (KM-58) is 0.999 silver. Retail for the $5 is in the $3 to $5 range. Mintmarks for this period are M = Medallic Art Co.; R = Roger Williams Mint of Rhode Island; S = Sunshine Mining Co. Mint, Idaho.

The Suez Canal opened in 1869, so (dated 1865) it was not current money. It may have been a meal token or something similar for canal workers (travaux = work). On the back I can read "Bon pour" which means "Good for" in French, but I can't read the bottom part.

Yes, Showa 35 = 1960. Contains 0.0926 Troy ounce of silver.

I encourage Members wishing to identify ancient or foreign coins or tokens, etc., etc., to scan an ordinary penny along side the item in question; this will help us judge the size. Some of the coins I've looked at today, it is impossible to tell whether they are the size of a dime, a quarter, or a dollar.

The obverse rim is badly degraded around the 4 or 5 o'clock position. It also looks like the coin has been scraped horizontally from the 9 o'clock position across the face toward the degraded rim. Other parts of the rim are higher than normal. What's hard to figure is why the tops of the letters of LIBERTY are worn so much? Both sides have an odd bluish-gray coloration across the center of the coin.

It's mils, M-I-L-S. A mil is 0.001 inch. So 100 mils is about one-tenth of an inch, which, in turn, sounds way too high for gold plating. See "mil" in Wikipedia.