NATIONAL PARKS OF JAPAN 100TH ANNIVERSARY (2024-2031) by Japan Mint While not the most prolific, or adventurous of the issuers of national coinage, the Japan Mint has always done an exceptional job encapsulating Japanese culture and geography. Indeed, one of the first Coin Series Profiles we ever did was for their excellent '47 Prefectures' series, which ran from 2008-2016. The mint's latest series is very much in the same vein, but in this case, it's a 34-coin celebration of Japan's national park system, which will hit a century in age in 2031, when this [...]

Japan has a history of doing things its own way and with a sense of style and design different from any other country. As a result, the fascination with Japanese culture is endemic in the West, but not many people know about the country itself. The Japan Mint has gone a long way to correcting that lack of knowledge, amongst coin collectors at least, with a terrific series of coins being released over eight years, starting back in 2008. Each coin showcases one of the 47 Prefectures that make up mainland Japan with an image that best illustrates what [...]