Japanese 1 sen die variety - Showa 14 (1939)

[gxseries]

I recently found this Japanese 1 sen and trust me, it's quite difficult to obtain in a decent condition:

 

 

It's a Japanese 1 sen dated Showa 14 (1939)

 

A normal coin of this year would be something like this:

 

 

The difference is with the character four. The left stroke is slanting towards whereas a regular coin of this year has a "box" on the left side of the character "four". Do try and keep a look out for it. Maybe someone here has such examples?

 

Japanese coins from the Second World War era are pretty interesting as there was many experiments released to the public, such as changing the planchet and trying out porcelain coins (at the near end of war) and reducing the weight of some. I don't have a full set of them which may be of some challenge.

[thedeadpoint]

I wish I could read Japanese so I knew which character was "four"

[gxseries]

thedeadpoint, this image should help you:

 

[ElleKitty]

What an interesting variety.

 

I checked the coins I could find, and honestly I thought I had more of this type. Turns out I have the year 13 larger coin, two of the 14s, and two 15s. I may have more tucked away somewhere however.

 

None of the variety you mention, but I will keep my eyes open for it from now on.

 

Japan 1 sen, Showa 13 (1938)

 

Japan 1 sen, Showa 14 (1939)

[haidee]

cool! i learned a lot in this thread... thanks for sharing the translations