Have you seen this Chansey flip coin before? [Pics] [2024 Update w/ Theory]

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I had a very pleasant experience with a gentleman from the UK who had this coin in his old stock from buys around 2010-2012. He mentioned not seeking out coins on his own but they were sometimes included when he bought other things, so it wasn’t something he really looked at until recently. He originally believed this was the standard Gold Chansey coin from the 1997 tournament and had listed it as such.

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However, it is not that coin, because that coin looks like this one, on the right.

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You can see how different the coins are when you place them side by side. Not only is the color different, but the pattern is different too.

I did not know what to make of it at first. The back of the coin appears identical to other coins from this era. The front of the coin also looks exactly like the Chansey used for the face of all of these coins, of which there are several variations and colors of. But this coin does not appear in the compendium from the Trainer Mag Volume 2, which lists all the coins up to that point. You can see the other Chanseys in there for reference.

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My first thought was that maybe it was one of the redder/pinker coins that had suffered sun damage, but the pattern is incorrect for this to be the case. The red/pink coins all have a mirror finish and this obviously has something different. The pattern it matches the most is actually the silver coin from the JP Base Set Decks, seen in this photo alongside side the regular gold counterpart.

So here’s the recap:

  1. The packaging and design seem to exactly match all the Chansey coins distributed in this era. Every Chansey coin, including the 1997 Gold tournament coin, came in these little plastic flaps with the tape on it.

  2. The sculpt of the front and reverse face seem exact and are exactly what one would expect from coins from this era.

  3. The color does not match anything on record that I am aware of in either English or Japanese.

  4. The pattern is closest to the silver coin distributed in multiple early theme decks.

  5. It does not appear to be a damaged coin that has become this color over time.

So what is this thing? My belief at first, and this was supported by a friend of mine who felt similarly, is that this must be a fake “gold coin.” The tournament coin is the rarest flip coin with the highest asking price, so if any coin was going to be forged it would be this one. It would make sense if that was the case. But I don’t know, now that I have it in my hands and having handled many of these coins, it doesn’t feel or look fake to me. I don’t know what to think.

Thoughts? Anyone know what this thing is?!

2024 Update
With some assistance from a collector in Japan, the coin is now posted on a page for under-documented coins. Let’s hope someone out there knows something!

Pokémon Coin Fan suggests this interesting theory, posted below.

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I can’t tell you what this coin is from but what I can tell you is that the presence of “M” in the copyright on the back tells us that it was produced prior to February 2001.

C is Creatures, G is Game Freak and M is Media Factory, but as with booster packs Media Factory’s involvement in the TCG stopped around February 2001 when The Pokémon Center Company took over.

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Excellent observation, I appreciate the contribution.

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Sleuth threads are my favourite. Unfortunately, however, I can’t offer anything to this one I’m afraid as it has me stumped.

Like you, I would say it points to a 1996 Starter Deck coin that has either been discoloured accidentally, or intentionally in an attempt to pass for the coins used at the 1st Pokemon tournament in Chiba, 1997. The foil does appear to be ‘splotch’ rather than the ‘cracked ice’.

If it’s not an original Starter Deck coin, then it’s possible a forger has confused the foil design of that coin when trying to create a copy of the tournament coin.

If it is genuine (but not discoloured), then I’m struggling to find any resources on a gold variant, and presumably you having it in hand means it’s not merely lighting.

Don’t suppose the original seller has any more info for you…?

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Unfortunately the original owner doesn’t know anything else. They were great to speak to and told me everything they could and gave me time to try to research it on my own before we closed the sale. I wanted it as a curiosity, even if it’s fake, but I am not so sure about it being fake now that I have it. Its proportions are so exact. The plastic feels exactly the same. If it’s a forgery, the forger did everything right and didn’t mess anything up anywhere - and that’s not usually what Pokémon fakes look or feel like, especially with something so niche and obscure.

I am beginning to favor the “factory error” possibility, but if it is a factory error I would think there’d be more of them.

That said, the possibility it was an official distribution is not out of the question. We turn up undocumented or previously unknown Japanese stuff all the time.

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One thing I will add is in reference to the checklist in that Japanese guide is that it isn’t possible the coin was released after the checklist was compiled. The final two coins, on the list, Chansey and Lugia, feature revised back faces with new copyight information. Instead of the energy symbols they have a large Poké Ball and some different phrasing. So if this coin is an official release of some kind, it would have to have been omitted from the check list entirely rather than post-date the publication.

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Giving this one bump for visibility then will let it die. I’m telling you folks, flip coins are slept on. In the alternate universe where I am from this is a really exciting find!

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I love flip coins. I’m not a dice rolling noob like everyone else. I do hate how they increased the size of modern coins.

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no

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Requoting this post for an interesting development not directly related to the mystery coin. This comment sort of set me on a hunt.

I have been collecting flip coins from Generations I and II for over a year now and have done a lot of legwork of my own to try to better document the numerous variants of the coins. This is difficult. There was a decently complete list on Bulbapedia that I used as a basis and have been filling in blanks of my own over time. Most of the “discoveries”, aside from the mystery coins, were very minor.

But I did realize there were more coins with the C/G/M copyright which also received C/G copyrights as a result of this post:
-Silver Chansey from the Base Set decks has versions with both copyrights (Base Set was in print for so long!).
-Onix from Nibi City Gym theme deck has versions with both copyrights.
-Starmie from Hanada City Gym theme deck has versions with both copyrights.
-Raichu from Kuchiba City Gym theme deck has versions with both copyrights.
-Gloom from Tamamushi City Gym theme deck has versions with both copyrights.

After discovering these I checked back on Bulbapedia and discovered… they’d been added to Bulbapedia. I was stunned by the timing and a little disappointed honestly because I wanted to be the one to produce the documentation. I have to wonder if somebody else saw your post and had the same idea as me and beat me to the punch.

The question that remains is if Blaine and Sabrina’s coins also have C/G/M copyrights, which I have not seen. Whoever added the missing coins to Bulbapedia also seems to have not seem them, since they do not indicate them in the list. So me and the mystery person have never seen them, but according to the timeline they should exist. Yamabuki City & Guren Town theme decks came out in February 1999. You indicate the C/G/M copyright dropped off in 2001.

It is possible that C/G/M coins exist for Arcanine and Alakazam, but it is unusual they would be so rare because it would have to have been a reprint of the decks that contained the seemingly ubiquitous C/G copyrights.

If you (or anyone) has any insight in to this particularly niche subject, please let me know!

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@qwachansey

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Unfortunately I looked and thought about it when I first saw this thread but haven’t seen it

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“qwa” has literally become synonymous with “Chansey” for me… I hope you’re happy

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If not even the Chansey Guy knows where this is from, what hope is there for the rest of us?

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@HumanForScale I was reading your phenomenal article on the Kamex Mega Battle tournaments and noticed that one of the giveaway prizes was a gold Chansey coin previously distributed at the first official tournament, which the gold flip coin is traditionally associated with.

This is a shot in the dark and just trying to drum up a new lead, but do we think it’s possible the two coins might actually have been different? Perhaps this other mysterious gold coin came from a Kamex Mega Battle? :thinking:

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I believe they would have to have made another production run since the 1st Official Tournament was over a year before Kamex and i can’t imagine they had almost 1000 spare coins lying around, so it could be a variant.

We can’t ever really know for certain though as photos back then aren’t clear enough (or even in color), so you’d have to find a kid who participated in both tournaments and still kept both coins to confirm.

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Took some new photos for a kindly Japanese collector who is going to add my coin to a list of undocumented coins. Will link it here when it’s updated, but thought it would be good to drop the new photos.

Edit: The coin is now posted on a Japanese website dedicated to the documentation and discovery of coins. Special thanks to @rainbow for promoting that page on E4.

Pokémon Coin Fan was super cordial and helpful and wanted to help me. It was a real pleasure to collaborate with a Japanese collector with a similar interest. They did not speak English and I do not speak Japanese, but we were able to speak together with the power of technology.

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Here is Pokémon Coin Fan’s theory:

The remaining possibility is that it is an error coin, and I think this possibility is the most likely.

The basis for this is that an error coin called “Zacian: Silver Rainbow Holofoil” was put up for sale on the Japanese auction site “Yahoo! Auction” around 2022.

Originally it was supposed to be a Silver Rainbow Holofoil, but it had the specifications of “Cinderace: Red Mirror Holofoil”, which was included in the first Pokemon coin collection.

From here on, this is just speculation, but the fact that “Nintendo/C/G/M” is engraved on the back makes it highly likely that it was produced between October 1996 and July 1998, and it is likely that the colour of the " Raichu Yellow Cracked Ice Holofoil C/G/M"from the same period was just used for the Lucky coin .

I’m guessing from this, but since “Nintendo/C/G/M” is engraved on the back, there is a high possibility that it was born between October 1996 and July 1998. I think the color of “Raichu: Yellow Cracked Ice Holofoil Nintendo/C/G/M” from the same period was used as it is for the Chansey coin.

Is this coin created by combining these two?

I think this is a good theory. Both silver Chansey deck coins and yellow Raichu deck coins were produced and distributed at the same time through similar means. Perhaps the Chansey coin was erroneously manufactured with the Raichu foil and made its way into a deck box where it was not identified as an oddity for all these years.

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I’m not fully convinced. the colors line up but the difference between the oil spill and cracked ice pattern doesn’t make sense to me. Unless that pattern itself is a layer that’s added on

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I for sure cannot say for sure. It remains a mystery, but this is at least a theory I did not consider. Here is a true comparison with proximity.

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It is at least something new to consider after almost three years of no leads.

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