The Chinese Gold Panda

The Chinese Gold Panda is a popular series of gold bullion coins issued by the People’s Republic of China in proof like, brilliant uncirculated quality. The official mint introduced the Panda gold bullion coins in 1982. The Panda coins come in different sizes and denominations, ranging from 1/20 troy oz. to 1 troy oz with 5 and 12oz . The Gold Chinese Panda has long been a favorite of coin collectors and jewelry designers the world over as the symbolic and cutely designed Panda is changed every year, with one exception. A freeze of the design was announced with the 2001 issues and thus the 2002 Pandas were identical to 2001. But collectors were unhappy and preferred the  annual changes, and China reverted to their original policy. At one time this gold coin was minted in seven different sizes, second only to the eight sizes of the Australian Nugget. The 5- and 12-oz. sizes were discontinued over a decade ago.

The main obverse design of the panda never changes. It features Beijing’s famous Temple of Heaven (Tien Tien) in the centre,  with Chinese characters on top saying “Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo” meaning People’s Republic of China and at the bottom the year of issue. If it is is a commemorative issue, the theme will also be marked here.

The design on the reverse changes annually, but it always features the endangered Giant Panda. The reverse of the coin also features the size, gold fineness, and monetary amount.

From 1982-2000, the face values of the 1/20- through 1-oz. Gold Pandas were 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 Yuan, respectively. Since that time, the face values of these gold coins have been raised to the denominations listed in the Coin Information shown below.

Chinese mints usually do not employ mintmarks. In certain years there are minor variations in the size of the date, style of the temple, etc. in the coin design that allow the originating mint to be determined. In some years but not all Marks and Proof Marks (signified by a ‘P’) have been added.

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The Chinese Gold Panda was first posted on December 31, 2013 at 3:35 am.
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