Peter Anthony: The 1996 5 Yuan silver Panda has never attracted much attention. There is no published mintage and it has decent availability. The coins are generally well struck but the fields are typically not highly polished. This makes the coin gleam a bit less than some others in the ½ oz. silver series. Despite this the 1996 shouldn’t be discounted as a common year – it isn’t. According to my research it is at least as scarce as the higher priced 1993. The entire 1993-1998 ½ oz. silver Panda series is found in the NGC Registry.