Modern Chinese Varieties: 1985 Copper Nickel 1 Yuan

Unlike most of the previous issues, which featured precious metal issues, this coin is a copper nickel-based 1 Yuan coin. There were several different Copper Nickel 1 Yuan coins minted in 1985. Today’s coin celebrates the Tibet, an Autonomy in China. The variety can be found on the reverse of the coin, featuring the Potala Palace. Built high up in the mountains of Tibet, China in the 7th century, the palace is stunningly painted in white and red and is over 13 stories high. This coin can be found with the palace devices near to the rim and far from the rim.

The first variety (pictured below) is an example featuring “devices near to rim” variety (Photos 1 & 2). The red arrow points to the variety area.

Photo 1 - (left) Devices near to rim Photo 2 - (right) Close-up of devices near to rim Click images to enlarge.

The second variety (pictured below) is an example featuring “devices far from rim” variety (Photos 3 & 4). The red arrow points to the variety area.

Photo 3 - (left) Devices far from rim Photo 4 - (right) Close-up of devices far from rim Click images to enlarge.

Both of these varieties share the same common obverse featuring the date 1985 (Photo 5).

Photo 5 - Obverse of a 1985 Copper Nickel 1 Yuan coin Click image to enlarge.

Look for another interesting variety to be featured next month.