Japan will sell 32,681 gold coins worth "several billion yen" and dating back to 1871, mostly through auctions, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. Under a plan announced last September, a panel of experts has appraised the quality of the coins and the ministry now plans to hold auctions - both conventional floor auctions and Internet auctions - in the coming three years, a ministry official said. The coins are part of the government's general account budget, not the foreign exchange account which owns Japan's external reserves, the official told a news conference.
For collectors, the auctions could be a chance of a lifetime as the coins are the last of such government holdings and include many that are rare.
For instance, 20 yen coins from 1932 are so rare that their prices are not listed in catalogues for collectors, and the ministry is selling 60 of them in "unused" condition and eight of in "extremely good" condition.
To attract higher prices, the coins will be individually packaged in transparent casings.
"By sealing them into the cases, we want to differentiate them from coins that are already traded in the market," the official said.
He said the government expected to raise several billion yen (tens of million dollars) from the sales - a drop in the ocean compared with Japan's public sector debt totalling 774 trillion yen ($7.1 trillion), or 150 percent of gross domestic product.
In its 82.2 trillion yen budget for the new fiscal year that began on April 1, the government is funding 34.4 trillion yen by issuing bonds.
The first floor auction for the coins will be held this autumn. Details will be announced on the ministry's website about a month in advance, and bids by mail will be accepted.
The more valuable coins, about one-third of the total, will be sold through the floor auctions.
The lesser-quality coins will be sold through Internet auctions, the first of which will be held before the end of the fiscal year next March.
When the ministry announced a preliminary plan to sell the coins last September, it said it had 32,683 coins, weighing a total of about 225 kg.
But two were found to be counterfeit, and a method of disposing of them - perhaps after melting them - will be considered in due course.
There were also 346 coins that were deemed sub-standard, and a sales method for them will also be determined later.
Museums and other public institutions can enquire by the end of June, and an expert panel will judge whether the ministry should sell the coins to them outside the auctions.
Precious metals, including gold and silver coins and bars, held by the Japanese government and private sector were temporarily confiscated by the Occupation forces after World War Two. They were returned to the government in 1951.
Since 1959, the state has returned the metals that belonged to the private sector and has been selling its own holdings. In 1977, the ministry sold its gold bullion to the Bank of Japan. In 1982, it sold ancient silver and gold coins to the public.