Not issue clay coin that claims to be issued. [solved]

Hi people. I followed some history. But I am confused here. Below is the coin.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces13996.html

According to some history, they claimed it was only issued for a few days. But later they say it was not issued. I suspect something is wrong here. If it is not issued, then why are there so many of these? Anyone have some history and knowledge over it?



In fact I do read a article on the clay sen that have different colours. Including blue and red. But I have no recollection of where this article is. Anyone care to share a though?

Edited: a new link for people to look at it again.

https://www.japaneseinvasionmoney.com.au/main/index.php/japanese-clay-coins

The coin page says:

"It is said to have circulated for a short time at the end of the war."

This should have been caught by the Numista referee for this page, because there's a box at the bottom, when you create or edit a page, where you must provide your references. "It is said..." is not good enough.

So, you're right. The page should be edited to remove the ambiguity.

You can't "catch" something when someone with referee rights does the change.
My co-referee has changed the title to 'not issued', personally I would have changed it right back but these coins have very vague history with little to no documentation, there are dozens of types (even more than in the pdf) and they are more like trials than patterns but we don't have other categories than that.

One major thing that gives the story of short time circulation credibility is the fact that this is the only type readily available and not costing 1000s of bucks (they might have been officially or unofficially released I think nobody keep detailed records at that point of the war).

So yeah, that's that.

Oh, I know what you mean. At some point I provided a very informative quote (with full reference) about the US circulating Kennedy halves which were approved by the referee, but then most of it was deleted, obviously by some other referee. So now I'm not spending much time writing up comments of the kind numismatists like.

That's unfortunate (you could always do like Ole does and publish your work in the forum so it will not be lost and your work for nought) but in this case nothing of this scale happend.

The problem here is I can neither really proof that they were "issued" nor disproof that they weren't at the moment.

I suspect they were really issued only for this coin. Other coins, I suspect there were only trails or patterns. This website is quite reliable as they sell Jim banknotes.

If you read carefully in the link that I have given, they were unofficially circulated for a few days. It goes on to show that is the reason why only this particular coin is quite accessible. I have seen it on ebay afew times. I did see 1 or 2 types of colour tone. The other 2 I have not seen it before.

There is another website that also sells this clay 1 Sen but I cannot really remember which site is it.

So I will change te comment to unofficially issued/released, I think this is a good compromise.
If you mean with different color of the 1 sen the gradient of red to brown, this depends on how hot the coins were baked.
You can also see this with German porcelain notgeld:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:2_Mark_WS_helle_und_dunkle_St%C3%BCcke.jpg

Thank you idolenz.

I really suspect they were unofficially circulated. Maybe at some point of time, someone made a mistake and circulate ard for afew days.

You know after the war it is quite chotatic for japan in some ways. You can look at the size of their coins during 1940 to 1945 the transition is very great. They used the cheapest metal tin and zinc to make the coins. And maybe its during this time,(I assume) they circulate for afew days their own citizens were angry as the money has no metal values. So they quickly withdraw after issuing the 1 Sen as not to cause embarrassment to the surrounding Asia countries. But that website Jim banknotes that I provided, they are the 2nd people to come out such catalogue in this region.

Quote: "Saber82"​
​Edited: a new link for people to look at it again.
​
​https://www.japaneseinvasionmoney.com.au/main/index.php/japanese-clay-coins

​I can't open this link...:(

I tried just now and it worked for me ...

Quote: "ZacUK"​ I tried just now and it worked for me ...
​

​No worries. It happens. Ha ha ha...

The main English language reference on these Japanese clay coins, called Toka sen, that I know of, is by Thomas Alvin Norris III and was published in "World Coins Gold Edition", Vol. 10, Whole No. 111, in March 1973. I am fortunate to own a copy. Norris states that there was no official issue of any pieces: "The Japanese government delayed issuance of the finished Toka until the necessary amount for the Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan was minted". The target was close to 2 billion pieces.

Norris goes on to list the amount produced by the war's end on August 15 and it is far less than the original plan. Norris then states "although these coins were never officially released, some one sen Toka circulated for one day in Osaka".

The term "circulated" is different than "issuance" or "officially released".

Norris has three cited sources. One of these seems to be a history of the Japanese Mint at its 100th anniversary. I do not have this reference. But I believe there exists a similar report for the 125th Anniversary of the Japanese Mint posted at

https://www.mint.go.jp/media/2012/05/ayumi_2.pdf

in Japanese.

I can read some Japanese, even without help from Google, but this is all at my best effort. In this report, as one would expect, we find much of the information is matching Norris. The report states that because of metal being required for the war effort, nominally 15 million pieces in total of the 1, 5 and 10 sen denominations were manufactured using ceramic production methods during July and August of 1945, but that none of the these coins were officially issued.

This is consistent with the Japanese National Dealers Association (JNDA) placing all three coins in the Pattern Coin section of their catalogs. The images in the JNDA also match a photo provided on page 99 of the Japanese Mint report.

To be fair, the JNDA does describe the 1 sen as "Manufactured in Seto, Kyoto" whereas the 5 sen and 10 sen are described as "Test Castings". This, and Krause et al. placing all three of the 1, 5 and 10 Toka sen in among other Japanese circulation coins leads to confusion. Clearly the 5 sen and 10 sen pieces were not in any way in circulation. In addition, as Norris points out, and had been touched on in this thread, there is a wide variety of colors and designs for all three denominations.

I have concluded that all three Toka sen should be considered pattern coins, not officially issued, and should not be placed side by side in a collection of coins types officially issued for circulation.

Just added a book to my library.

"Japanese Ceramic Coinage" by Gregory Hale.  Published by Centaur Media, Australia 2021.  

 

Has the information in this thread plus more, including descriptions and illustrations of 15 distinct designs, both trial pieces and production volume items (evidently 8 of the 15 designs were made in production volumes).

 

As for the initial question in this thread, this book simply states on page 26:

“On 15, August, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan.  A few days prior, the 'Mt Fuji' 1 sen coins were unofficially circulated in central Japan." 

On page 35, the ‘Mt. Fuji’ design (called “Design 4”) is illustrated.  The title states:

“Approved Designs.  1 sen unissued.  5 sen and 10 sen specimens.”

In the comments section for Design 4 it has:

“The 1 sen coin went into production and was unofficially circulated in Osaka for a few days before war's end.  The cream colour would have been achieved by adding a small amount of Brown Iron, as little as one per cent.  Cream coins are scarce.”