Japan, 1870-195020 SEN
|
Meiji 3 (1870), NGC MS-63. Shallow scales.
|
|
The Meiji 3 20 sen follows the same change in dies as seen with the 5 and 10 sen denominations. The earlier versions appear soft in strike and show much less detailing with the dragon's scales, and are called the 'shallow scale' variety. The dies were re-worked into the more delineated appearing 'deep scale' variety.
Meiji 3 (1870), NGC MS-63. Deep scales (and some interesting clashing/die breaks)
Meiji 4 (1871), NGC MS-67. The frosty brilliance is not well reflected in this photo. This year has a variant where the 'sen' character is either complete or incomplete as illustrated below.
|
|
Meiji 4 has a variant where the 'sen' character is either complete or incomplete.
Meiji 20 (1887), NGC MS-66
Meiji 41 (1908), NGC MS-66