Fake - 2010 Chinese Lunar Tiger

Barely a month after the launch of the 2010 Chinese Lunar Tiger coins, the counterfeits has surfaced! Ebay seller xuemei828 has listed these counterfeit coins. While she has the slightest ethics in declaring that these are gold and silver plated coins, there would be many others who would pass it off as the genuine coins simply because there is no way to know by visually looking the the coins. It would be until it is being weighed that we would know. Alternatively, old-time coin collectors are aware that the newer issues of Chinese coins are no longer double-sealed, hence, photographs of double-sealed coins would likely to be deemed as counterfeits.

Another way would be to look and feel the Certificate of Authenticity (COA). The counterfeit COA is printed by high quality printers and hence, makes the genuine COA colour look pale and feint. In the 25-Coin Panda set, counterfeit COA does not have watermark. However, this counterfeit COA HAS watermark. The difference that can be felt is as the counterfeit feels flat while imprints could be seen and felt on the genuine COA. However, over time and after the coin and COA has crossed many hands, we may not be able to use this method to authenticate. This makes me wonder on the impact on slabbing the coins because while it seems safe to buy slabbed coins, the slabs could also be counterfeited together with the coins. Where does Chinese coin collection go from here?

2010 Chinese Panda Coin

The 2010 Chinese Panda coins would be issued by November 2009. There would be 7 gold and 3 silver panda coins for 2010.

The planned maximum mintage is as follows, previous year mintage in ( ):

GOLD

1 kilo: 200

5oz: 1,000

1oz: 300,000 (160,000)

1/2oz: 120,000 (60,000)

1/4oz: 120,000 (60,000)

1/10oz: 120,000 (100,000)

1/20oz: 120,000 (100,000)

SILVER

2010 Chinese Silver Panda Obverse

2010 Chinese Silver Panda Reverse

1 kilo: 4,000

5oz: 10,000

1oz: 800,000 (600,000)

The Chinese government is definitely encouraging more of their common People to hold physical precious metals by greatly increasing the mintage for the smaller denomination.

Within 1 month of issue, collectors began to spot the differences between the 2010 Silver Panda coins. It began with 2 varieties differentiated by their capsules - Shenzhen Guobao Mint uses capsules that has 3 hitches inside to keep the coin in position. It was observed that the Shenzhen produced coin had a frosty background of the bamboo.

Later on, other collectors also observed that from each mint, there are actually 2 varieties making it total of 4 varieties for the 2010 version of Silver Panda coins. The differences between the 4 varieties can be observed from the 'black' fur at the neck of the left panda and right hind leg of the right panda.

Total NGC graded: 16,959

MS70 (1,805); MS69 (11,705); MS68 (3,271); MS67 (117); MS66 (47); MS65 (7); MS64 (7)

Fake - 2003 Silver Panda

Back in September, I bought a fake 2003 Silver Panda from ebay seller longlong65. I had suspected that it would be fake since he sprung up from no where to start selling silver pandas. Nonetheless, I got a second offer from him though I lost the bid. These fakes sellers would post photographs of genuine coins in double seal stolen from other genuine ebay coin sellers. And when questioned about the coin, these fakes sellers wouldn't be able to give you a proper answer. Like when I asked seller about the weight of the coin in grams, he could only reply me that it weighs 1 oz.

The fake coin was very well struck and it had the right diameter and thickness. Only when weighed, we could tell it is a fake. The fake weighed only 26.5g, which is still less than the 1 oz that he claimed. The tussle went on for a month and paypal required me to send the item back and provide a tracking number. This was done and I had to continue the wait till I wrote to ebay this time asking ebay to show paypal the record of this seller who made his feedback rating private probably after many negative feedback received. After a few days, paypal replied that they would refund the money.

Photos of genuine vs counterfeit:

1984 Chinese Historical Figures Silver Set

The first of the Chinese Historical Figure Set (中国杰出历史人物纪念币) was issued in 1984. It was a set of 4 silver proof coins of 90% fineness each weighing 22g, diameter of 36 mm and a face value of 5 Yuan. A planned mintage of 30,000 sets were minted by Shanghai Mint. According to Mr. Ge Zhu Kang's catalog, the eventual mintage was 14,401.

The obverse of each coin depicts the Chinese national emblem, year of issue and 中华人民共和国.

The reverse of the 4 coins depicts the Terra Cotta Army:

General (将军俑)

Officer (武官俑)

Kneeling Archer (跪射俑)

Horseman (牵马俑)

In the same year a 1/3 oz gold coin of 91.6% fineness, 23 mm in diameter and face value of 100 Yuan was also issued with a planned mintage of 25,000. The gold coin was issued with the same theme depicting the great Emperor of Qin with the Great Wall of China as the background. Mr. Ge recorded that an eventual 10,327 of this coin was issued and was minted by the Shenyang Mint.

October Transacted Prices for Gold Panda

The prices speak for themselves as spot price hit a high on 13 Oct. Notably, the 1982 fell 22% from August price of more than $3,200 to below $2,500. It could be due to the widespread of counterfeit coins that moved buyer away from non-slabbed 1982. The PCGS MS68 had a 'Best Offer' transaction of nearly $4,400 shipped.

1982 - $2,496.14

1983 -

1984 - $1,643.12

1985 - $1,617.27

1986 - $1,692.06

1987P - $1,833.30

1987Y - $1,611.67

1988 - $1,672.50

1990 - $1,683.50

1992 - $1,692.14

1994 - $1,748.34

1996 - $1,691.74

1998 -

2000 - $1,618.60

2001 - $1,614.79

2002 - $1,614.79

2003 - $1,871.07

2005 - $1,554.74

2006 - $1,589.72

2007 -

2008 - $1,655.70

2009 - $1,622.14

Record Gold Price

3 November: New York closed at US$1,088.50 while silver continues to languish below US$18.

4 November set a new high above US$1,090 fueled by Indian Central Bank's buying of 200 tonnes of gold from IMF at around US$1,045.

October Transacted Prices for Silver Panda

The spike in precious metal prices last month have lured many sellers to part with their collections. With Gold hitting record high at US$1,066.00 on 13 Oct 09 as Silver struggle to pass US$18, it seems that either buyers are waiting out or sellers are out of stock. 1989 & 1990 are recovering with a 1992 Large Date that was sold extremely cheap. It would be good to grab a few post-2000 now to be released later as they rise.

But once again, Chinese fake coin makers are making collecting Chinese coins a dangerous game. Unscrupulous sellers continue to sell fake coins with real coin photographs and also the fake coins are made with such accuracy that one collector showed me photograph of a fake 2000 Mirror weighing 30.9g. I just didn't get a chance to measure the thickness of the coin. Somewhere has to give in physics.

In the coming months, I should have more time to post a fake 2003 that was so well struck that only the weight could tell the difference. Also, I would be adding some Chinese Fan Shaped Lunar Coins to this blog as well as the first of the Chinese Historical Figure Series of the Terra-cotta Armies. Stay tuned!

1989 55.35

1990L - 1990S 93.89

1991L 122.43 1991S -

1992L 83.89 1992S 120.96

1993L - 1993S -

1994L - 1994S -

1995L - 1995S 86.01

1996L - 1996S -

1997L - 1997S -

1998L - 1998S 90.44

1999LP - 1999S - 1999LS -

2000F 127.68 2000M 334.00

2001 40.82 2001D 49.04

2002 39.60

2003 56.26

2004 38.36

2005 40.27

2006 38.66

2007 39.03

2008 35.49

2009 36.87