Pics of 1987 Gold Panda

Only after I took close up photographs of the coin, I could see why NGC and PCGS had difficulties giving Gold Panda of earlier years MS70. There is a red mark on the 4th post from the centre stairway, which is probably copper toning.

Close up view of the Temple of Heaven. There should be 3 characters at the centre of the 3rd level of the Temple - 祈年殿

The red marks are also visible on the reverse of the coin near the '1oz' wording and at the rim. Mint mark 'S' is also clearly visible.

1987 Chinese Gold Panda

Today marks the purchase of my first Gold Panda. I traded it for nearly 50 oz.t of silver bullion but still lower than today's UOB's selling price of their gold bullion. Compared to millions of Gold Maple Leaf, the 1987 Panda ('S' Shanghai Mint) has a mintage of 84,000 while it's twin ('Y' Shenyang Mint) - 47,000. However, I have read that at auction, both appear nearly the same number of times and this is in fact, a common year Panda.

The purchasing process is a little more cautious due to the high number of fakes in Chinese coins. The coin was measured to have diameter of 32mm and thickness of about 3mm at the edge. It was difficult to measure the thickness with a caliper at the centre of the coin because of the higher relief. The coin was sealed in a plastic sleeve and together they weighed 32.0g or 1.030 oz.t. The actual coin should weigh 31.1g or exactly 1 oz.t. As a pre year 2000 gold coin, it has a face value of 100元.

On the obverse, it show 7 Chinese character: 中华人民共和国 above the depiction of the Temple of Heaven and the bottom of the coin shows the year of issue: 1987

On the reverse, it states: 含纯金１盎司 成色 .999 1 oz Au. It depicts a panda drinking from the stream, a mint mark S and the face value.

The edge is reed '||||||||||'.

I sure hope there would be more Gold Pandas to follow after the first purchase.