Nagano Olympic Commemorative 500-Yen Cupronickel Coins | How the Three Types Differ

The Ministry of Finance's List of Commemorative Coins begins with the Tokyo Olympic Games of 1964 (Shōwa 39). Two coins were issued then: a 1,000-yen silver coin (exchange from 2 October 1964) and a 100-yen silver coin (from 21 September). The Ministry of Finance states that commemorative coins date from the Tokyo Olympic Commemorative 1,000-Yen Silver Coin and that there are none from before it.

For the Sapporo Olympic Winter Games of 1972 (Shōwa 47), a single 100-yen cupronickel coin was issued. Its obverse shows the Olympic cauldron and its reverse the Olympic rings and a snow-crystal pattern known as first snow; it measures 30.0 mm, weighs 12.0 g, and 30,000,000 were issued. In the Japanese Olympic Committee's (JOC) list of Winter Games, the Games have been held in Japan twice, in Sapporo and Nagano.

For Nagano, three face values — a 10,000-yen gold coin, a 5,000-yen silver coin and a 500-yen cupronickel coin — were each issued in three series, making nine types in all.

According to the Ministry of Finance's list, the obverse designs and exchange start dates of the 500-yen cupronickel coins are as follows: snowboarding for the first series, from 7 February 1997; bobsleigh for the second, from 7 August 1997; and freestyle skiing for the third, from 2 February 1998. The coins of the first and second series are dated Heisei 9 and those of the third Heisei 10.

Since the Games began on 7 February 1998, the first exchange began exactly one year before the opening and the third 5 days before it.

All three are cupronickel (copper 750, nickel 250), 26.5 mm in diameter and 7.2 g in weight, with 20,000,000 of each. The schedule to the Enforcement Order gives "500-yen commemorative coins: 60,000,000", the same as the three series combined.

The reverse of all three is "rock ptarmigan (the prefectural bird of Nagano)". According to Nagano Prefecture, four candidates for the prefectural bird were put forward as birds that are "rare, suited to Nagano Prefecture, and to be carefully protected", and in the 1966 (Shōwa 41) vote of residents the rock ptarmigan was chosen with 4,818 votes (the common cuckoo was second with 1,761).

In the Agency for Cultural Affairs' database of nationally designated cultural properties, the rock ptarmigan was designated a Natural Monument on 7 March 1923 and a Special Natural Monument on 15 February 1955. Its description calls it "a precious bird protected since ancient times as a sacred bird". The Ministry of the Environment classifies the rock ptarmigan as Endangered (EN, category IB) and designated it in Heisei 5 as a National Endangered Species under the Act on Conservation of Endangered Species.

The reverse of the 10,000-yen gold coin of the same Games shows the prefectural flower, the gentian, and that of the 5,000-yen silver coin the prefectural animal, the Japanese serow.