Did Ulysses S. Grant Give Away Rare Japanese Gold Coins?
Some of the best coin stories begin when the coin itself raises more questions than answers.
That is what happened after numismatist David McCarthy studied a group of early Japanese gold coins sold by Kagin’s in 2022. The pieces included provincial and so-called fantasy issues associated with Japan’s Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States Period, which lasted from 1467 to 1600. The problem was authentication. Coins from that chaotic period have long been difficult to classify, and genuine early pieces have sometimes been grouped with later imitations under the loose Japanese term gansho hin.
McCarthy bought several coins that looked sufficiently old and crude to warrant further study. Then he noticed something much more intriguing: several of the interesting pieces traced back to the estate of Giovanni P. Morosini, a wealthy New York collector whose holdings were otherwise centered heavily on European material.
That raised the question that turns this from a world-coin story into a historical detective story.
How did a New York financier who collected primarily in the late 19th century acquire a significant group of apparently much older Japanese gold coins soon after Japan emerged from centuries of restricted contact with the West?
McCarthy’s research eventually pointed toward former President Ulysses S. Grant.
And the paper trail gets surprisingly interesting.
TL;DR
- Auction discovery: A 2022 Kagin’s sale included mysterious early Japanese gold coins, several of which traced back to Giovanni P. Morosini.
- Historical mismatch: Morosini mainly collected European material, making his substantial group of Japanese coins unusually out of place.
- Presidential connection: Ulysses S. Grant visited Japan in 1879 and developed important relationships with Japanese leaders during his world tour.
- Missing pieces: The source reports that Emperor Meiji gave Grant 55 rare coins, while only part of that group later reached the Smithsonian.
- Business relationship: Grant had financial ties to both Morosini and railroad magnate Jay Gould through a failed Mexican railroad venture.
- Documentary clue: Contemporary accounts later described some of Morosini’s gold coins as gifts from Grant.
- Collector lesson: Provenance can transform an unidentified coin from an isolated object into evidence connecting collectors, political figures and international history.
This Mystery Started With Coins That Were Already Difficult to Explain
Early Japanese provincial gold can be a difficult area even before provenance enters the discussion.
During the Sengoku Jidai, political authority was fragmented among competing regional powers. That creates a much less standardized numismatic landscape than collectors encounter with modern national mintages. The Reading Room article explains that skepticism surrounding the material has been strong enough that genuine 16th-century pieces and later fabrications have sometimes been swept into the same broad gansho hin classification.
For me, that is what makes the story interesting from a collecting standpoint. Authentication is not always a matter of looking up a date, matching a photograph and checking a price guide. Sometimes the history surrounding the object becomes part of the evidence.
McCarthy approached the Kagin’s lots that way. Rather than assuming the unusual pieces were authentic because they appeared in an auction, he studied the crude manufacture, apparent age and provenance before deciding that several deserved a bid.
That is the same reason provenance matters when evaluating an unusual coin auction. A catalog description tells you where a coin is being sold. A documented ownership history can help explain where it has been for the previous century.
Giovanni Morosini Was the First Big Clue
Giovanni P. Morosini does not immediately sound like the person you would expect to find behind a group of obscure Japanese provincial gold coins.
Born in Venice, he eventually settled in New York and became closely associated with railroad financier Jay Gould. McCarthy notes that Morosini collected arms, armor and European coins, with a particular emphasis on Italian material. His major collecting activity took place from roughly 1860 through the mid-1880s.
That timeline made the Japanese pieces especially curious.
Japan had only recently emerged from the Sakoku period of restricted foreign relations. A substantial group of older Japanese gold appearing in the possession of a Manhattan financier was therefore not merely geographically unusual. It demanded an explanation.
Collectors sometimes underestimate how useful an apparently mismatched coin can be.
If you inherit a collection and find one object that seems completely unrelated to everything around it, that piece may represent:
- A gift from another collector
- An overseas trip
- A diplomatic or military connection
- A dealer purchase
- A collection exchanged privately
- Material inherited from another family member
- Part of an older collection that was later dispersed
The outlier may be the coin with the most important story.
My guide to how to buy and sell a coin collection is useful in situations like this because keeping groups and records together can preserve information that disappears once individual coins are separated.
Grant’s 1879 Visit to Japan Changes the Story
Ulysses S. Grant left the presidency in 1877 and embarked on an extraordinary world tour with his wife, Julia. The National Park Service says the trip eventually covered 19 countries between 1877 and 1879. Japan became the final major stage of the journey.
Grant reached Japan in 1879, where his visit went far beyond sightseeing.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs records that Grant arrived at Yokohama on July 3, 1879 and met Emperor Meiji on August 10. During the meeting, Grant discussed Japanese political development, foreign debt and the dispute between Japan and Qing China over the Ryukyu Islands.
The National Park Service likewise describes Grant’s unusually prominent diplomatic role during the Asian portion of the trip. Chinese officials had asked him to help mediate the Ryukyu dispute, and Emperor Meiji later discussed the issue privately with him.
So the basic historical connection is solid: Grant was physically in Japan, was received at an extraordinary level and had direct access to the emperor.
That makes the next part of McCarthy’s research much more consequential.
Then 30 Coins Apparently Disappeared From the Trail
According to the Reading Room account, McCarthy found earlier research by Smithsonian intern Chelsea Hansen concerning coins presented to Grant during his visit.
The article says Emperor Meiji gave Grant 55 rare coins. After Grant died in 1885, Julia Grant eventually donated many of his possessions to the Smithsonian. But somewhere between the imperial gift and the later bequest, the article says 30 of the 55 coins were no longer present.
That is the point where this becomes much more than an unusual auction provenance.
If the figures in that earlier research are correct, more than half of the original group had left Grant’s possession before the surviving material entered the Smithsonian.
Where did they go?
There are several possibilities in theory. Grant could have given pieces away, sold them, divided the group or otherwise transferred them during the final years of his life.
McCarthy initially considered Grant’s well-known financial problems as one possibility. But the evidence he found began pointing in a different direction.
Grant and Morosini Already Knew Each Other
The potential connection was not based simply on two wealthy men living in New York at approximately the same time.
McCarthy found that Grant, Morosini and Jay Gould were tied together through a failed Mexican railroad venture.
That relationship matters because provenance becomes much stronger when there is a plausible transfer path.
Imagine two otherwise identical theories:
| Provenance Theory | Strength |
| Grant owned Japanese coins and an unrelated New York collector later owned Japanese coins | Interesting coincidence |
| Grant owned Japanese coins and a documented business associate later owned Japanese coins | Plausible transfer path |
| Contemporary records state that Grant gave that associate gold coins | Much stronger historical evidence |
The evidence McCarthy found reaches that third level.
His search turned up Morosini’s obituary, which reportedly stated that some of the collector’s gold coins “were the gift to Mr. Morosini of General Grant.”
That does not, by itself, prove that every Japanese coin in the Morosini group was part of Emperor Meiji’s presentation.
But it makes the connection much harder to dismiss.
The 1932 Auction Record Makes the Trail Even More Specific
The strongest clue in Part 1 may come decades after both men had died.
McCarthy found an October 1932 issue of The Numismatist discussing the Morosini material. The notice described an unusually extensive group of Japanese gold coins and reported that the collection was understood to have been given to Morosini by Grant.
That is significant for two reasons.
First, it directly connects the Japanese gold collection, not merely unspecified gold coins, to Grant.
Second, it means this provenance was being discussed in numismatic circles long before the 2022 auction reopened the question.
The evidence chain therefore looks something like this:
| Point in the Story | What It Establishes |
| 1879 | Grant travels to Japan and meets Emperor Meiji |
| Imperial presentation | Grant reportedly receives 55 rare Japanese coins |
| 1880s | Grant and Morosini have a documented business relationship |
| Morosini records | Some gold coins are described as gifts from Grant |
| 1932 | Numismatic reporting associates Morosini’s Japanese gold collection with Grant |
| 2022 | Coins with Morosini provenance reappear at Kagin’s |
| 2026 | McCarthy reconstructs the connection in Mysterious Gold, Part 1 |
That is not the same as complete proof.
It is, however, exactly the kind of provenance chain that should make a researcher keep digging.
My video about ancient coins found in a collection fits this lesson well. When a coin comes from a historical context that is difficult to classify, its surrounding evidence can matter almost as much as the metal itself.
What We Know and What We Still Do Not Know
This is where collectors need to separate evidence from an attractive story.
We can reasonably establish that Grant traveled to Japan in 1879. Japanese government and U.S. National Park Service sources independently document his meetings and diplomatic activity there.
We can also say that the Reading Room investigation found historical references connecting Grant to Morosini and linking Morosini’s Japanese gold collection to a gift from Grant.
What Part 1 does not yet establish is that a specific Kagin’s coin can be conclusively traced from:
Emperor Meiji → Ulysses S. Grant → Giovanni Morosini → later owners → 2022 Kagin’s auction.
That chain is the ultimate prize.
It would require stronger object-level evidence, such as:
- Old auction plate matches
- Inventory descriptions
- Handwritten collection records
- Distinctive weights or dimensions
- Historical photographs
- Provenance labels
- Die or fabric matches
- Smithsonian records
- Surviving correspondence
- Documentation from earlier Morosini sales
This distinction is essential because provenance can easily become circular. One auction catalog repeats an older attribution, another catalog cites the first and eventually a theory begins to look like established fact.
A good collector should always ask where the chain begins.
This Is Also an Authentication Story
The possibility that these coins once belonged to Grant is exciting, but there is another layer to the mystery.
Are the coins themselves actually products of the 16th-century Japanese world they are supposed to represent?
The source explains that uncertainty surrounding gansho hin has historically caused genuine early issues and later creations to be treated together.
A strong provenance could become important evidence in that debate.
If a particular coin can be demonstrated to have entered Morosini’s collection in the 1870s or early 1880s, that would at least establish that it predates many later reproductions and modern fantasies. If the chain extends directly to a presentation made by Japanese authorities to Grant, the historical context becomes even stronger.
That does not automatically authenticate a coin as 16th century.
A late-Edo or Meiji-period reproduction could theoretically have been included in a diplomatic gift representing earlier coinage.
Still, provenance can narrow the range of possibilities dramatically.
This is one reason I like world coins. You sometimes have to combine numismatics, metallurgy, archival research and plain old detective work.
Why I Would Never Separate a Collection Like This Too Quickly
If a group of coins comes with an old envelope, ticket, handwritten card or collector name, I would photograph everything before rearranging a single piece.
Once a collection is broken apart, context can disappear permanently.
Imagine finding ten unidentified Japanese gold pieces in a box marked “Morosini.” If those coins are sold individually without preserving that association, future researchers may never realize they shared a common origin.
The same applies at a much smaller level when you inherit an ordinary collection.
Keep:
- Old envelopes
- Dealer flips
- Auction tags
- Receipts
- Collector notes
- Certificates
- Previous holder labels
- Photographs
- Boxes showing how the collection was organized
An ugly handwritten envelope can sometimes be worth more historically than a new plastic holder.
That is also why old coin collections should be evaluated as groups before they are treated as individual inventory.
The Presidential Connection Is Fascinating, but It Should Not Set the Price Yet
A Ulysses S. Grant provenance could obviously increase interest.
Presidential ownership adds a completely different collecting audience beyond Japanese numismatics. Historical memorabilia collectors, Grant specialists and institutional buyers could all become relevant.
But a great story should not substitute for authentication.
Before paying a major premium, I would want answers to several questions:
Object identity: Can this exact coin be traced through earlier photographs or catalog descriptions?
Transfer evidence: Does a record identify the Japanese pieces themselves as Grant’s gift to Morosini?
Timeline consistency: Was the coin demonstrably in the collection early enough to support the claimed history?
Numismatic authenticity: Do specialists believe the piece itself is period genuine?
Documentation quality: Is the provenance based on primary sources or repeated auction lore?
Market comparables: Have other coins with similarly documented Grant provenance sold publicly?
The better the documentation becomes, the more defensible a provenance premium becomes.
Until then, the historical story is compelling evidence to investigate, not a blank check.
Why This Story Matters Beyond Japanese Gold
The biggest lesson here is not really about one group of mysterious gold pieces.
It is about how collections move through history.
A coin can cross an ocean as a diplomatic gift, pass between business associates, disappear into a private cabinet, surface in an auction half a century later and then be rediscovered by another collector almost 150 years after the original event.
At every transfer, information can be lost.
That is why serious provenance research matters. It can reconnect the object with people and events that explain why the coin exists in the market at all.
Silverpicker viewers who enjoy unusual international material may also like my look at buying a coin collection from Israel. World-coin groups regularly contain objects whose historical significance is not obvious until you understand where the collection came from.
My Takeaway: This Is a Coin Mystery With a Real Paper Trail
The temptation with a story like this is to jump directly to the most exciting conclusion: Emperor Meiji gave Ulysses S. Grant rare Japanese gold coins, Grant gave some of them to Giovanni Morosini and those same coins resurfaced at Kagin’s in 2022.
Part 1 gets us surprisingly close to that story, but not all the way.
We have Grant in Japan. We have an imperial coin gift reported in the investigation. We have missing pieces from that group. We have a business relationship between Grant and Morosini. We have historical references saying Grant gave Morosini gold coins. And we have a 1932 numismatic account specifically associating Morosini’s Japanese gold collection with Grant.
That is an impressive collection of clues.
But the last step is the hardest one: connecting an individual surviving coin to that exact chain.
And that is apparently where this investigation is going next. The Reading Room ends Part 1 by asking how the Japanese gold mystery ultimately connects back to United States coins and promises the continuation in a future installment.
For now, I would treat these coins exactly the way McCarthy did.
Do not dismiss them because the category is messy.
Do not authenticate them because the story is exciting.
Follow the evidence.
Sometimes the history sitting behind a coin is much bigger than the coin itself.
Frequently Asked Questions About Grant’s Japanese Gold Coin Mystery
Did Ulysses S. Grant visit Japan?
Yes. Grant visited Japan during the final portion of his 1877-1879 world tour. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs records his arrival in Yokohama on July 3, 1879 and his August meeting with Emperor Meiji.
Did Emperor Meiji give Grant Japanese coins?
The Reading Room investigation reports that Emperor Meiji presented Grant with a group of 55 rare coins. The article further says that only part of that group later reached the Smithsonian, leaving 30 pieces unaccounted for in the intervening provenance.
Who was Giovanni P. Morosini?
Morosini was a Venetian-born New York financier and collector associated with Jay Gould. According to the source article, he collected arms, armor and European coins, making the presence of a significant Japanese gold group in his holdings especially unusual.
Is it proven that Morosini’s Japanese gold coins belonged to Grant?
The evidence is suggestive but Part 1 does not conclusively trace every individual coin. McCarthy found historical references stating that Grant gave Morosini gold coins and a 1932 numismatic notice associating Morosini’s Japanese gold collection with Grant. An exact coin-by-coin provenance would require additional documentation.
Why are early Japanese gold coins difficult to authenticate?
The Sengoku Jidai produced decentralized and irregular coinage, and later copies or fantasy pieces complicate attribution. The source notes that genuine early coins and later pieces have sometimes been grouped together under the broad label gansho hin.
Further Reading
- What Are Coin Auctions?: Helpful context for understanding how important collections reenter the market through public sales.
- How to Buy and Sell a Coin Collection: A practical guide to evaluating complete collections before separating individual pieces.
- Old Coin Collections: 4-Step Profit Guide: Useful background on evaluating older groups while preserving potentially important information.
- Auction Watch: Lars Emil Bruun Coin Collection: Another example of how provenance and long-held collections can shape numismatic interest.
- The Best Small Gold Bullion to Buy: Helpful for separating the bullion side of gold ownership from historically important numismatic gold.
