Japan
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The Dansco Japan Type #7460 album was initially published in 1966. It was subsequently modified to include the 1970 Expo coin (present in this example), but there have been no updates since. In fact the album itself has become quite collectable and are not frequently found for sale on the US market. I see one for sale maybe every year or two on eBay, and one sold in April 2014 at Heritage.
Page 1, front
Page 2, front
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Page 4, front
Page 5, front
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Page 1, back
Page 2, back
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Page 5, back
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As nice it is to have an album with high quality coins, it is sometimes difficult to 'crack' a valuable and/or otherwise high quality coin from a 'slab' to put one's BEST coins into an older album such as this.
To that end the following link is to a custom NGC registry set reflecting the Dansco 7460 template. As a custom set, there are both NGC and PCGS coins present. So far none of the coins in the album have shown evidence of increased toning, nor have any been abraded by the plastic slides covering the holes. However it is not a protective environment which is a concern not only for the more valuable specimens, but also ones made of the more reactive metals (such as tin).
Over the years I've been fortunate enough to find some fairly nice coins that were suitable for this album, but were either 'raw' or 'crackable' (ie not a problem to remove from the slab to place in the album). Interestingly it has been some of the wartime/post war issues in off metals that have been among the most challenging to find in excellent condition. The biggest liberty I have taken with this set has to do with the Trade Dollar and the 'gin' marked yen (the 'gin' is discussed on the obsolete yen page). The Trade Dollar was a coin I considered likely to be unobtainable given the value of even impaired coins. The idea of a permanent empty space in the album disagreed with my (slightly) OC heart, so when I chanced upon an outrageously chopped 1 yen coin, I did think to fill the hole with that coin. After all, a chopped coin is one that has been tested by private merchants and/or banks and once deemed real, functioned as a trade coin. It was a cool coin and with a little imagination, could sort of 'fit' the Trade Dollar slot (metaphorically speaking as physically it fit just fine). Eventually a suitable Trade Dollar was found. It was not in a third party grader slab, and was in possession of enough hairlines that it was unlikely to 'straight grade'. Thus putting it in a slab did not make enough of a monetary difference to make doing so 'sensible'. The coin remains happily raw. |
But what to do with the lovely, wildly chopped yen? It is so full of character that I could not bring myself to remove the coin from the album completely. My current only 'gin' marked yen is okay, but is less interesting to say the least. So the chopped yen sits in the 'gin' slot for no other reason than I like it there. Incorrect, but beautifully so. And, it's not enough to disturb the obsessive compulsive in me. An empty space yes, a little imagination in coin placement, no.
Along the obsessive compulsive lines (not so uncommon in collectors) it is worthwhile to note there are a couple minor typos in the album. The printing for the 50 and 100 yen on page 5 should really read 1967- (the dash is missing but those series continue even now). Also the 1940-1943 5 sen 'dove' is actually a kite or hawk (the 'Golden Kite' per the Cummings reference). Not a dove though!
Along the obsessive compulsive lines (not so uncommon in collectors) it is worthwhile to note there are a couple minor typos in the album. The printing for the 50 and 100 yen on page 5 should really read 1967- (the dash is missing but those series continue even now). Also the 1940-1943 5 sen 'dove' is actually a kite or hawk (the 'Golden Kite' per the Cummings reference). Not a dove though!