With rich, ancient numismatic history, the China Mint has the beautifully designed Gold Panda series and their iconic Lunar-themed releases, both considered among their most prized coins. Most fascinating of all, despite the minute differences between coin designs, the Chinese Mint does not often strike any sort of mint mark on its releases, making Chinese gold coins all the more intriguing.
With rich, ancient numismatic history, the China Mint has the beautifully designed Gold Panda series and their iconic Lunar-themed releases, both considered among their most prized coins. Most fascinating of all, despite the minute differences between coin designs, the Chinese Mint does not often strike any sort of mint mark on its releases, making Chinese gold coins all the more intriguing.
Evidence of the world’s oldest mint has been discovered in China's Henan Province, dating back to sometime between 640 and 550 BC. Located near the Yellow River, archeological digs began to find ritual vessels, tools, and weapons that were produced around 770 B.C., and in addition to other ceramics, metal debris, and broken bronze artifacts, two spade-shaped coins were also discovered along with more than 50 clay cores that were used to cast the coins.
Continuing its numismatic history, first established as the Shanghai Mint in 1920, the China Mint operates under the supervision of the People’s Bank of China as the national mint for the country today. In China’s long history of wars, relocations, divisions, and hardship, the China Mint still has managed to strike quality bullion and proof, making gold coins from China some of the most sought after amongst worldwide numismatists and collectors.
Major global mints have anticipated annual releases that help define the country and mint and are often defined through a gold bullion series. Much like the South African gold Krugerrand, Canada’s Gold Maple Leaf, and the American Gold Eagle, China has the Gold Panda coin. First struck in 1982, the Chinese gold Panda was the third gold bullion coin to make its worldwide debut after both the Krugerrand and Maple Leaf.
In a 30 gram coin, the Chinese Gold Panda is struck with99.9% pure gold. As an annual bullion release, the Chinese Gold Panda typically sees high demand and anticipation every year as one of the most iconic Chinese gold coins.
From 1982 to 2000, the Chinese Gold Panda followed the troy ounce weight system of 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/10, and 1/20; however, in 2016, the Chinese Mint made the decision to transition the series to metric units,, weighing the Chinese gold coins at 30 grams, 15 grams, 8 grams, 3 grams, all the way down to 1 gram.
The gold Panda always features a representation of the Temple of Heaven on its obverse, while the reverse features annually changing designs of the iconic Chinese bear.
Because of the historic sentiment and what the Chinese Gold Panda has done to contribute to gold bullion coins worldwide, each Gold Panda with its strike quality and proof has made these gold coins from China some of the most sought after amongst numismatists and collectors globally.
In 1981, the Chinese Mint first began this commemorative series to honor the tradition of the 12 zodiac animals in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Since the release of the first series, a total of four lunar series have been released by the Mint as iconic Chinese gold coins. The newest cycle began in 2020, which featured the Rat. And, due to the diversity of designs that come from each coin within these lunar coins, some collectors use China Mint lunar-themed releases as the basis of their gold Chinese coin collection.
With regular, scalloped, and fan versions of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, there are a variety of ways to collect Chinese gold coins within the Lunar Series to add to the diversity of any collection.
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