Exceedingly Rare Meiji Pattern Silver Yen to be Auctioned by Heritage!

Dallas, Texas: Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers (HG&A) will offer an 1870 Meiji 3 Silver Pattern 1 Yen in their upcoming Signature auction, to be held January 8 & 9 in New York City.

"After Commodore Perry opened Japan to the rest of the world in 1854, the formerly reclusive nation went through an extensive period of modernization," said Warren Tucker, Director of World Coin Auctions for HG&A. "One of the many areas that saw significant changes was Japanese coinage."

"Prior to 1870," Tucker continued, "Japanese coinage were either of the oban type, basically stamped ingots, or small silver beads, also stamped by the government. With the modernization of Japan came a more European style coinage, as seen in this spectacular piece, which was designed by L.C. Wyon, one of the leading designers of English coinage. Struck at the British Royal Mint, this piece, the largest silver piece of the new coinage, represents an unadopted design, and is thus quite rare. It does, however, share striking similarities with the design that was eventually accepted."

"The design shows a dragon within a beaded circle and legend surrounding on the obverse, with a sunburst with flowers surrounding on the reverse,"Tucker said. "Unlisted in JNDA, it is Proof 65 NGC with a variegated blend of cobalt-blue, crimson-red, and argent-gray toning over full mirror-like fields. This piece is similar in design to J & V Q1. Hocking: The Catalogue of the Coins, Tokens, Medals, Dies and Seals in the Museum of the Royal Mint, Vol II, by Hocking, pp. 140-141, die nos. 4040, 4041, lists two white metal pieces in the Royal Mint Collection, but no silver piece. The only silver example we can reference was sold in Spink sale 60, October 1987, lot 1108, where it realized £20, 350, or approximately $37,000. That example was a cleaned about XF. This spectacular coin is of the highest rarity and possibly the finest known of only a very few examples extant."

The 1870 Meiji 3 Silver Pattern 1 Yen has a pre-auction estimate of $90,000 - $110,000.

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