questions on foreign money im about to recieve. notes on mycollection.

i have some mexican and chinese and japanese money that im getting from
a friends trip and anothers foreign exchange student. and i was
wondering about it because these will be likely newer coins maybe early
1900s as they will just be pocket change. will they have numerical dates
that an american can read or will they be pardon the expresion all greek
to me. its been bugging me because i can visualize the mexican coins
saying something like 1950 but in spanish words same thing with the
chinese and japanese i can see it being in their lettering. in any case
i come here seeking the answer because you all seem to know things like
this and im the new guy in town. also being new to this i roll hunt
quite a lot to get what i want due to my disability i can not attend
shows cant find them or even afford them really. and was wondering does
anyone else do this or have you evolved beyond it. if you still do this
or have in the past whats your best pulls mine so far has been 2 1907
indian pennies and a 1890 indian penny what got you guys started doing
this for me it was a bit of a joke and an extreme amount of luck. it was
my birthday in 2009 my young niece asked me what i wanted well that day
i had been reminded of my youth and my love for just counting any kind
of penny or other coin. it did not matter what was in them at the time
wheats canadians simply i loved the counting and did it for hours i was
like 7 then im 34 now. so anyway thinking cheaply since she was young i
said get me rolls and in the 3 dollars worth she got was my first ever
indian 1907. i began that day to do this seriously and in just under a
year i have amassed 300 wheats i personally found. since then my
collections soared to big time collecting. with the help of a few
friends i have mercury dimes buffalo nickels large cents canadian and
american kennedys franklinss usan anthony sets. a blank penny planchet
silver coins tax tokens from the 20s or 30s that are round plastic
things nearly completed lincoln set minus the keys of course a canadian
penny set minus the keys. its been a very good year for me i have things
that i love that i could never afford if i had to find them or could
even find them i have been blessed with great friends of which i count
you guys.

james durham wrote:
i have some mexican and chinese and japanese money that im getting
from a friends trip and anothers foreign exchange student. and i was
wondering about it because these will be likely newer coins maybe
early 1900s as they will just be pocket change. will they have
numerical dates that an american can read or will they be pardon the
expresion all greek to me. its been bugging me because i can
visualize the mexican coins saying something like 1950 but in spanish
words same thing with the chinese and japanese i can see it being in
their lettering. in any case i come here seeking the answer because
you all seem to know things like this and im the new guy in town.
also being new to this i roll hunt quite a lot to get what i want due
to my disability i can not attend shows cant find them or even afford
them really. and was wondering does anyone else do this or have you
evolved beyond it. if you still do this or have in the past whats
your best pulls mine so far has been 2 1907 indian pennies and a 1890
indian penny what got you guys started doing this for me it was a bit
of a joke and an extreme amount of luck. it was my birthday in 2009
my young niece asked me what i wanted well that day i had been
reminded of my youth and my love for just counting any kind of penny
or other coin. it did not matter what was in them at the time wheats
canadians simply i loved the counting and did it for hours i was like
7 then im 34 now. so anyway thinking cheaply since she was young i
said get me rolls and in the 3 dollars worth she got was my first
ever indian 1907. i began that day to do this seriously and in just
under a year i have amassed 300 wheats i personally found. since then
my collections soared to big time collecting. with the help of a few
friends i have mercury dimes buffalo nickels large cents canadian and
american kennedys franklinss usan anthony sets. a blank penny
planchet silver coins tax tokens from the 20s or 30s that are round
plastic things nearly completed lincoln set minus the keys of course
a canadian penny set minus the keys. its been a very good year for me
i have things that i love that i could never afford if i had to find
them or could even find them i have been blessed with great friends
of which i count you guys.

You should be able to read the dates on the Mexican coins just fine. They
use western numerals and the same calendar. Their denominations are
occasionally in Spanish, but take advantage of that as a learning
opportunity!

The Japanese coins will present two problems:

1) They use Japanese characters instead of the numerals we are used to.
There are decoder charts in most any book that covers world coins.

2) They date their coins according to the regnal year of the emperor. Thus
Yr. 1 of emperor Hirohito = C.E. 1926, and Yr. 1 of the current emperor
Akihito = C.E. 1989.

Any Japanese coins you are likely to encounter will have only two digits in
the date because of this.

Any more questions, feel free to ask. Even though we occasionally drift off
topic around here, coins are still the main reason most of hang out in rcc.

James the Chronologist

james durham wrote:
i have some mexican and chinese and japanese money that im getting
from a friends trip and anothers foreign exchange student. and i was
wondering about it because these will be likely newer coins maybe
early 1900s as they will just be pocket change. will they have
numerical dates that an american can read or will they be pardon the
expresion all greek to me. its been bugging me because i can
visualize the mexican coins saying something like 1950 but in spanish
words same thing with the chinese and japanese i can see it being in
their lettering. in any case i come here seeking the answer because
you all seem to know things like this and im the new guy in town.
also being new to this i roll hunt quite a lot to get what i want due
to my disability i can not attend shows cant find them or even afford
them really. and was wondering does anyone else do this or have you
evolved beyond it. if you still do this or have in the past whats
your best pulls mine so far has been 2 1907 indian pennies and a 1890
indian penny what got you guys started doing this for me it was a bit
of a joke and an extreme amount of luck. it was my birthday in 2009
my young niece asked me what i wanted well that day i had been
reminded of my youth and my love for just counting any kind of penny
or other coin. it did not matter what was in them at the time wheats
canadians simply i loved the counting and did it for hours i was like
7 then im 34 now. so anyway thinking cheaply since she was young i
said get me rolls and in the 3 dollars worth she got was my first
ever indian 1907. i began that day to do this seriously and in just
under a year i have amassed 300 wheats i personally found. since then
my collections soared to big time collecting. with the help of a few
friends i have mercury dimes buffalo nickels large cents canadian and
american kennedys franklinss usan anthony sets. a blank penny
planchet silver coins tax tokens from the 20s or 30s that are round
plastic things nearly completed lincoln set minus the keys of course
a canadian penny set minus the keys. its been a very good year for me
i have things that i love that i could never afford if i had to find
them or could even find them i have been blessed with great friends
of which i count you guys.

I see that you also asked about Chinese coins.

If they are PRC, they will likely have western dates in western numerals.

If not, the more recent ones still may have western dates in western
numerals.

If they are Republic of China coins, they will have dates from the founding
of the republic (Yr. 1 = C.E. 1912) in Chinese characters. Again, any good
world coin catalog should have a decoder chart.

James

thanks for the fast response. i don't mind going off topic. sometimes
there's not much happening in my personal collection. so i seek out
other folks with similar interests. and see what they find or what they
lack. i help when i can because folks have been good to me in return im
good to them. i roll hunt which is a good portion of my life. i can
spend as much as 8 hours a day twice a week looking for things. its paid
off handsomely in one respect because i find unique things i found a
penny just this week its fairly new but its dented with a string or
screw type mark like it was struck with a screw or string over it or
something. i just don't know what for sure. once i found a penny that
showed little if any signs of corrosion but the eye area was gone like
it had been eaten through just there. once i found a newer Lincoln cent
that had a cross cut outta it was a post 82 so it was sandwiched it
looks neat with it being like a cross section. im not finding 2010 cents
yet. don't expect to for some time kind of not in a hurry for me its the
thrill of the hunt that has me doing this.