Expert: Brad Swain - 12/31/2009

Question
I saw a 2 sen coin on ebay for around 4 bucks, however mine has a few different symbols on it. The side opposite of the 2 SEN is the exact same as the one i saw, however the other side has a few differences. If you were to go clockwise from the 2 SEN it would have a dot, 3 digits, a dot, then 5 digits, then a dot. I wish i could say more about it, but it seems impossible to explain. I looked up a few of Japanese numerals, and all i could find was a 3 and a 10. thanks for the help, troy. i tried to photograph it, but the only way to see it was with the flash, and that blinded the whole coin. ahha

Answer
Hi Troy, the different characters indicate a different emperor's reign name. The date, read right to left until the end of WWII, indicate the year of that particular reign. So it seems you have a 2 sen from the Meiji era Year 13 (10+3) equal to 1880 AD. Collector value may be worth about .50 with heavy wear to around $3.50 with moderate wear to maybe $12 with light wear.
World coin pictures may be found here: http://worldcoingallery.com/index.htm ,
http://www.coinarchives.com/ , and http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis.jsp .
You might also try a library for a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins for pictures, values and lots more interesting info.
Brad