Update on my recent diversion while I wait for my latest 8 reales submission to be graded.

I read Gary's (ghermann44) latest post about his time at the ANA show with Dave (Yankeejose) and noted that he finally bought his wife a silver panda coin. I've been meaning to journal about pandas for awhile so here goes.

I got sidetracked from my 8 reales passion earlier this year when I bought an MS 70 2011 1 oz Silver Panda coin for my fiancee to commemorate the year that we met. Since pandas are her favorite animal, it was well received and, hopefully, an acknowledgement that coin collecting has a fun side, too.

Naturally, the coin hunting instinct in me kicked in and I started looking at the competitive sets of silver panda coins. This was my introduction to the modern commemorative bullion collecting that so many of you write about (the SAEs, for instance). It took some investigating into mintages, populations and prices (NGC's Chinese Modern Coin Price Guide was one source) to convince me that these might have a worthwhile payback in addition to their charm. Starting with 2002, a reasonable number of MS 70s are available and each year from then to present has a different, well executed, panda design (the earlier ones look a bit cartoonish to my eye).

So I've built a short set of silver 1 oz pandas from 2002 to present and my intention is to highlight each design with a nice photo, perhaps in a custom set. Until then, I'll leave you with a nice composite of the 2002 coin.

~jack

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