Chinese Coins: Set Pieces

When I was a kid I collected Lincoln cents. Every trip to the store meant a new chance to fill one of the blank spots in my blue folder. I didn’t think about it much at the time but those cents were my first set of coins. For collectors there is something fundamental about forming sets. In China that fascination merges with the belief that there is harmony and completion in sets.

But what group, or set of Panda coins, best embodies that ideal of harmony? There are so many possibilities. Most of the popular ones are listed in the NGC Registry. There you can find lists of sets like “Silver 10 Yuan Panda, 1983-Date, One-Per-Date” or “Gold 1 Ounce Panda, 1982-Date, Mint State.”

If you look down at the bottom of the page there is a category for “Panda Medals.” While medals often get less attention than coins, many times they have the best stories associated with them. That is because they are connected to a single coin show or event. During the 1980s as interest in Panda coins reached a fever pitch, so did demand for Panda medals. This led to some colorful incidents that are now part of their history.

As of today there are seven medal sets in the NGC Registry. The highest profile may be the “Gold 1 Ounce Panda Medals, 1987-1990, Proof.” By chance this set contains an even ten medals and several have very low mintages as few as 500. If those published mintages aren’t low enough, the actual mintages of some are even lower!

One very popular set is the “Silver Panda 1 Ounce Medals, 1984-Date, Mint State and Proof.” Among the 23 medals in this set is the very first Panda medal issued as well as a pair of medals struck in 2014. It’s not necessary to buy all 23 to form a cohesive set, though. The nine Munich Panda medals attract interest from collectors, particularly in Europe.

Between 1990 and 1997 the China Mint struck a silver medal each year for the Munich International Coin Show. The medals are quite beautiful and feature notable places and monuments in Munich on one side and a Panda on the other. Mintages are attractively small: 2,500 for most years and only 1,800 in 1997. The coins were sold by one of the largest distributors of Chinese coins during this period, M.D.M. Deutsche Münze of Germany.

Another interesting set of medals is the “Silver 5 Ounce Panda Medals, 1985-Date, Proof.” The first of these large Silver Pandas was released in Hong Kong, China in 1985. By 1987 when the Long Beach silver Panda medals were issued, new issues were blazing hot and immediately jumped in value. Competition for the medals was fierce and led to all sorts of schemes and frayed tempers.

It’s a long time since I tried to complete my Lincoln cent set. The magic and challenge of a complete set is still there, though, and a set of low-mintage Panda medals offers both value and beauty to collectors.

For those interested, current prices for Panda medals can be found in the NGC Chinese Modern Coin Price Guide. Further information is available online as well as in the Gold & Silver Panda Coin Buyer’s Guide book.

Peter Anthony is an expert on Chinese modern coins with a particular focus on Panda coins. He is an analyst for the NGC Chinese Modern Coin Price Guide as well as a consultant on Chinese modern coins.