Japan 2015 Fukuoka 47 Prefectures 1000 Yen Silver Coin

Description:

The Japan Mint is honoring the 47 Prefectures of Japan with a colorful 1,000-yen silver coin series. The history and beauty of each prefecture is captured in full color on the coin’s obverse, while each coin’s reverse features a beautifully engraved design emblematic of the 47 prefectures. The Japan Mint allocates up to 10% of the total authorized mintage of each coin for distributors in the overseas market.

The Japan 2015 Fukuoka 47 Prefectures 1000 Yen Silver Coin is struck in .9999 fine silver.

Obverse:

At the top of the coin’s colorized obverse is Okinoshima Island (沖ノ島). This remote island is located in the Genkai Sea (玄界灘) and is revered by the Japanese, both for its history and practitioners of Shinto (神道).

The island in Fukuoka Prefecture is home to 22 ancient ritual sites and over 80,000 important Japanese artifacts from the 4th to 9th centuries. In 2009, Japan nominated Okinoshima Island for inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the coin’s lower half is an image of the Munakata Taisha Grand Shrine (宗像大社). The Grand Shrine is actually a combination of three Shinto shrines, the Okitsu-miya Shrine (沖津宮) on Okinoshima Island, the Nakatsu-miya Shrine (中津宮) on Oshima Island, and the Hetsu-miya Shrine (辺津宮) on Tashima. These shrines are devoted to three goddesses who were believed to protect the sea route to the Korean peninsula.

Also depicted is a gold ring – one of the artifacts unearthed on Okinoshima Island. It is believed that this ring was brought from the Silla Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period of Korea. The ring was designated as a National Treasure in 1962.

The inscription: 日本国 (Japan) wraps around the top of the design. In the right center, the prefecture FUKUOKA is inscribed in English and in the Japanese: 福岡市.

Reverse:

Common reverse design for the 47 Prefecture 1000 Yen Silver Coin Series. State-of-the-Art mint technology is applied to the center of the largest snow crystal to make the numbers “47” (for the 47 Prefectures) and “60” (representing the 60th Anniversary of Enforcement of the Local Autonomy Law) appear alternately when viewed from different angles. At the bottom of the coin is the inscription: 平成27年, which denotes that the coin was issued in the 27th year of the Heisei era. The denomination 1000 Yen is presented in English and Japanese.

Coin Specifications:

Keep up with all the latest coin releases from the world mints by clicking on CoinWeek’s World Coin Profiles Page.