2012 Chinese Panda Coin

The 2012 Chinese Panda coins would be issued on 30 November 2011. Like in 2011, there would be 7 gold and 3 silver panda coins for 2012.

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

GOLD

1 kilo: 500 (200)

5oz: 5,000 (2,000) 

1oz: 600,000 (300,000) 

1/2oz:600,000 (200,000) 

1/4oz:600,000 (200,000) 

1/10oz: 800,000 (200,000) 

1/20oz:800,000 (200,000)
 
SILVER

1 kilo: 20,000 (8,000)

5oz: 50,000 (20,000)

2012 1oz Silver Panda Rev

1oz:8,000,00 (3,000,000)

The Panda coins will be produced by Shen Zhen Guo Bao, Shen Yang and Shanghai Mint. It would be interesting to see how many varieties are there for this issue.

There weren't any varieties discovered but NGC came out with a variety of labels -
The Early Release Blue Label,  First Release Panda Label, Early Release Panda Label, Early Release Country Label and Early Release Great Wall Label (not in picture). Given the mintage of 8 million, top graded coins would be the way to go for Chinese Silver Panda coins now. Number of MS70 graded by NGC stands at 17,310 (26 Oct 2013)

Panda America Singapore International Coin Fair

1 kg Proof Gold Panda on display

My purchase at the fair

2011 Chinese Panda Coin

The 2011 Chinese Panda coins would be issued on 10 December 2010. Like in 2010, there would be 7 gold and 3 silver panda coins for 2011.

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

2011 1 oz Gold Panda Reverse

2011 1 oz Gold Panda Obverse

GOLD

1 kilo: 300 (200)

5oz: 2,000 (1,000)

1oz: 300,000 (300,000)

1/2oz: 200,000 (120,000)

1/4oz: 200,000 (120,000)

1/10oz: 200,000 (120,000)

1/20oz: 200,000 (120,000)

2011 1 oz Silver Panda Reverse

2011 1 oz Silver Panda Obverse

SILVER

1 kilo: 8,000 (4,000)

5oz: 20,000 (10,000)

1oz: 3,000,00 (800,000)

The Panda coins will be produced by Shen Zhen Guo Bao, Shen Yang and Shanghai Mint. It would be interesting to see how many varieties are there for this issue.

In addition, from internet pictures, it seems that the stone sculpture on the centre stair way has become plain like the temple design used before 2002. Let's get the real thing to see for ourselves.

Total NGC graded: 13,455 (as of 18 Dec 2011)

MS70 (6,805); MS69 (6,650)

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)

1991 Chinese Gold Panda

Today marks the purchase of my second Gold Panda in a week. It sure cost me quite some cash but for a coin mintage of 36,367 and it has been regarded as a scarce coin. We need to be clear about the terms 'Rare' and 'Scarce' being used here. I would consider a coin 'Rare' if it has low mintage of less than 5,000. 'Scarcity' of a coin would imply that it is seldom available for sale.




This coin like the 1987, comes in a sealed package with a label stating it is Made in China by China Gold Coin Incorporation (Lower row) and issued by The People's Bank of China (Upper row). Due to its different packaging, the overall weight for the coin is 1.065 oz.t or 33.2g.

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.