The Tobacco Smile and one good Trade Dollar

Some years ago my husband and I decided to spent our new year in China. He's been to this lovely place before we got married and he wanted to take me there. So after a long night's trip in a stuffy bus from Yunnan to this old town called Lijiang I found myself fascinated with all these old people early in the morning, old men with birds in particular, basking in the sun, blowing smoke and with tobacco smile, it was a few degrees below zero. Some of them with a flask of hot tea warming their hands. It looks so serene, I felt like invading their privacy, well until midday when all these buses filled with Chinese tourist swarmed the place then I seemed to be insignificant by stander! Anyway, after a good Chinese tea and a good "noodley" breakfast or something like that, while my husband was busy taking pictures I set off to find my ultimate buy for the day. I had three things in mind, coin, vase and something antique, it didn't matter if two are in one find. In a big open area after a stone arch bridge I saw this old guy with his tobacco smile holding an open box with some goodies on it. He had one coin. I've never seen a coin like that before let alone that big. I have never really heard anything about Trade Dollars either. The coin looked very interesting, it definitely looked "antique" to me, it could be a souvenir. So I haggled for a price, which made me felt bad because it wasn't really that expensive and this old guy really had a sweet smile, reminded me of a sweet old granddad. I didn't insist more, bought the coin and a pair of silver chopsticks and some stones, just to make him feel lucky and set for the day because I think I was his very first customer. Anyway, I left satisfied, that was the very first coin I actually bought.
Coin: Japanese Trade Dollar
Value: 1 yen (also known as Dragon Yen)
Year: 1877 (Meiji 10)

It took me a while to identify the coin. The first image, notice the flower on top, that is a Japanese Royal Symbol or the Royal Family Crest called Kiku or chrysanthemum. Underneath it is what says 1 ("-") and the symbol after that says "yen". The next image (the other side of the coin), the Kanji Characters says more or less Meiji 10 (1877) Japan. Unless I am wrong. I am open to correction and it is one of my favorites. This one is in very good condition and rare.

Modern Japanese Coins