Author| Li Jiang "China Gold Coin Group Limited"
Source| Financial Expo Fortune
Precious metal commemorative coins, often referred to as "monetary aristocrats", are not only due to their inherently expensive materials, but also in their humanistic, technological and aesthetic attributes that transcend monetary functions.
In 1979, the State Council officially authorized the Chinese Bank to issue precious metal commemorative coins in China with Guo Fa [1979] No. 250 document, and in the same year, Chinese Bank issued commemorative gold coins for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, thus opening the prelude to China's issuance of precious metal commemorative coins. For more than 40 years, China's precious metal commemorative coins have experienced the development process from scratch, from small to large, from facing foreign countries to facing the people, from minting and earning foreign exchange to investment and collection.
Precious metal commemorative coins carry The excellent traditional culture of our country and also witness the major historical events of China's development. As of November 2021, Chinese Bank has issued a total of 481 projects and 2470 varieties of precious metal commemorative coins. Each project has its own characteristics and is loved by more and more people.
Precious Metal Commemorative Coins VS Ordinary Commemorative Coins
Precious metal commemorative coins and ordinary commemorative coins are limited-edition RMB with specific themes, which can meet the collection needs of the public. The differences between the two are the different materials, the different meanings represented by the denominations, and the different liquidity.
First of all, the material of precious metal commemorative coins is mainly gold, silver, platinum and other precious metals, while the materials of ordinary commemorative coins are mainly steel zinc, copper nickel, steel core nickel plating, paper, plastic and so on.
Secondly, the denomination of precious metal commemorative coins is a symbolic symbol as the national legal tender, which does not represent its true value, such as the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China commemorative gold coins contain 4 gold coins of 1/2 ounce, and their denominations are 400 yuan, but this is obviously not the true value of these 4 gold coins, while the denomination of ordinary commemorative coins indicates its legal value.
Finally, because the denomination of the precious metal commemorative coin does not represent its true value, the precious metal commemorative coin cannot be circulated, and its denomination is not included in the market cash flux, in layman's terms, the holder cannot use the 400 yuan gold coin to go to the supermarket to shop, and in reality, it is estimated that no one will do this. After the issuance of ordinary commemorative coins, they can be circulated with the equivalent value of the renminbi, and their denominations are included in the market cash flow flux and become part of the money supply. The holder can pay the parking fee with a face value of 100 yuan in space money, and the parking lot administrator may not refuse to accept it.
The complete category of "coins" is brilliant
Precious metal commemorative coins cover a wide range of themes, and can be divided into giant panda and animal and plant series, zodiac series, major commemorative event series, outstanding figure series, literature and art series, traditional culture series, World Heritage and scenic spots series, religious culture series, Olympic and sports series, science and technology environmental protection and other theme series.
●Giant panda and animal and plant series
Up to now, the series has issued a total of 675 commemorative coins, ranking first among several series.
Panda gold coins originated in 1982, which is one of the longest-issued, largest and most recognized varieties in China's history. After 40 years of development, panda gold coins have become one of the world's famous investment coins. The panda coin family is very large, not only gold coins, silver coins, but also copper, platinum, palladium and other materials of panda coins and panda bimetallic coins. Among them, the smallest is 1 gram and the largest is 5 kg.
Panda Coin has a lot of pioneering moves. For example: the 1982 edition of the Panda Universal Gold Coin is the only set of panda coins without denominations; the 1983 edition of the 12.7 grams panda copper commemorative coin is the first panda coin in China to use Chinese characters to mark the denomination (one yuan); the 1991 edition of the Chinese Panda Gold Coin commemorative gold coin for the tenth anniversary of the issuance of the gold coin is the highest at that time, weighing 5 kilograms, the circulation is only 10 pieces, which was the world's heaviest gold coin at that time, and the current market price of the gold coin has reached tens of millions of yuan.
In addition to panda coins, the series also has commemorative coins for animals and plants. Taking the rare animal series of gold and silver coins as an example, in 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1993, China issued a total of four sets of rare animal series gold and silver coins, including four gold coins and nine silver coins, focusing on the selection of some endangered chinese rare wild animals. From the "forest angel" golden snub-nosed monkey to the "Yangtze River Goddess" white-tipped dolphin and the "Oriental Gem" crested ibis; from the "Chinese tiger" South China tiger to the "longevity immortal bird" red-crowned crane, "one of the three treasures of northeast China" sika deer; from the "cat cow" antelope to the "lucky bird" Oriental white stork, the "leopard treasure" snow leopard; from the national treasure giant panda, brown bear to wild camel, "four different" elk... Rare animals have always been a popular numismatic collection in the world and have always been sought after by collectors.
● Zodiac series
China's Zodiac culture is deeply attracted to people around the world because of its unique style. In 1981, Chinese Bank issued the Xin You (Chicken) Year Zodiac Gold and Silver Commemorative Coin, which was the first set of Zodiac Precious Metal Commemorative Coins in New China, which opened the prelude to the issuance of the Zodiac Precious Metal Commemorative Coin. As of 2021, a total of 41 items and 454 varieties of commemorative coins have been issued in China's zodiac series. Zodiac coins have always been favored in the collecting community, so what points should collectors focus on when collecting and investing in zodiac coins? Let's comb through a few key words.
Keyword 1: Award.
In 1982, the 15-gram silver coin of the Year of the Dog in China won the "Best Krone Coin Award" at the 1984 World Coin Awards. In 1988, the 12-ounce silver coin of the Year of the Dragon in China won the "Best Silver Coin Award" at the 1990 World Coin Awards. With the blessing of these awards, the value of related commemorative coins will naturally rise sharply.
Key word two: weight.
The largest weight of China's precious metal commemorative coin is 10 kg, and the denomination is 100,000 yuan. The first 10 kg Zodiac gold coin was the 10 kg gold coin for the Year of the Pig in Ding Hai, China in 2007.
Key word three: style.
Looking back at the history of the issuance of zodiac coins, its design style can be roughly divided into the following stages: the first stage is before 2000, this stage is mainly based on the theme of zodiac animal paintings; the second stage is from 2000 to 2007, this stage is mainly based on the designer's realistic debut works as the zodiac coin pattern; the third stage is from 2008 to 2020, in this stage, the style of the zodiac gold and silver coins is renewed, including realistic, modeling, decoration and other styles of art forms have begun to appear and be used.
From 2021 onwards, the style of the Zodiac commemorative coin of the Year of the Ugly Bull has undergone new changes. The back of the 15 Zodiac Year of the Ox coins uses 7 design artworks, while the 2020 Zodiac Rat Year Commemorative Coin only uses 2 design artworks on the 17 coins, so the Year of the Ox commemorative coins make more full and reasonable use of limited coin resources. At the same time, this set of Ox Zodiac commemorative coin design drawings is divided into cartoon style, decorative style, realistic style three, of which cartoon style and decorative style tend to the aesthetic taste of young collectors, while the realistic style focuses on catering to the aesthetic taste of senior collectors, so that the real sense of a hundred flowers bloom.
● Series of major commemorative events
On June 21, 2021, China issued gold and silver commemorative coins for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, which is the first time that China has issued precious metal commemorative coins with the theme of "founding the Party", which is of great significance.
There are many precious metal commemorative coins for major commemorative events such as the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, such as the commemorative gold coin for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China issued in 1979, and then every 10 years, China has issued gold and silver coins for the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. For example, in 1996, 2006 and 2016, the Chinese Bank successively issued gold and silver commemorative coins for the 60th, 70th and 80th anniversaries of the victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.0
● Outstanding People Series
More than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization have created generations of great people. In order to enhance national pride, from 1984 to 1993, China issued a series of precious metal commemorative coins of China's outstanding historical figures, a total of ten groups and 51 commemorative coins, which detailed the historical figures who made significant contributions to the development and progress of Chinese civilization (see Table 1) and inscribed their great achievements. This series of gold and silver commemorative coins is recognized by all countries in the world as a concise and general history of China.
Corresponding to the gold and silver coins of China's outstanding historical figures are the gold and silver coins of world cultural celebrities. From 1990 to 1994, China issued a set of gold and silver coins with the theme of outstanding figures of world civilization. In the context of globalization and cultural diversity, this set of coins shows the glorious style of world cultural celebrities, and also fully demonstrates the tolerance and cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation.
Among them, the gold coin figures are the Yellow Emperor, the Yan Emperor, dayu and King Wen of Zhou; the silver coin figures, in addition to Confucius, are all well-known world cultural celebrities, including Homer, Socrates, Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe, Mark Twain, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Edison, Einstein, Nobel, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Columbus.
●Literary and artistic series
In 1993, the series of ancient Chinese paintings, the Peacock Open Screen Gold and Silver Coin (using The Peacock Open Screen Map by Lang Shining of the Qing Dynasty), opened a new series of Chinese precious metal commemorative coins- the Literature and Art Series. Its themes include Famous Chinese Paintings, Masterpieces of Classical Chinese Literature, Ming and Qing Fan Paintings, Chinese Opera Art, chinese Calligraphy Art, etc. Among them, the most influential and richest is the Series of Famous Chinese Paintings, which to some extent can be said to engrave the entire history of Chinese painting on gold and silver coins (see Table 2).
●Traditional culture series
Of course, traditional culture is indispensable in precious metal commemorative coins, such as traditional festivals, folk customs, legends and myths. Auspicious culture is an important part of traditional culture. In 2015 Chinese Min min bank issued a set of auspicious cultural gold and silver commemorative coins, showing the spiritual pursuit and good wishes of the people. There are four themes of auspicious culture gold and silver commemorative coins: health and longevity, childbearing, happy marriage (changed to beautiful love in 2021), auspicious happiness. From 2015 to the present, the theme of the auspicious culture gold and silver commemorative coin project is shown in Table 3.
●World Heritage Sites and Scenic Spots Series
May 19 every year is the "China Tourism Day", for commemorative coin collectors, you can also visit the great rivers and mountains of the motherland on the commemorative coin. In 1990, China issued the Taiwan Scenery Gold and Silver Commemorative Coin (Group 1), which is the first set of commemorative coins with the theme of China's scenic spots, and also opened a wonderful prelude to the series. In addition, there are many scenic spots condensed on the commemorative coins, for example, China issued the "own a piece of homeland" Chinese scenic spot gold and silver commemorative coin in 1993, the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum and the Famous Mountains of Wuyue moved to the commemorative coins; in 1996, China issued the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River gold and silver commemorative coins; in 1998, China issued the Guilin Landscape Gold and Silver Commemorative Coin; in 1999, China issued the Suzhou Garden Commemorative Coin; in 2014, China issued the Hangzhou West Lake Cultural Landscape Gold and Silver Commemorative Coin.
● Religious culture series
Since the issuance of the Guanyin commemorative gold coin in 1993, in the religious culture series, China has issued a total of 21 projects and 103 commemorative coin varieties, the main projects include the Guanyin series, the grotto art series, the Buddhist holy place series, etc.
●Olympic and sports series
Olympic and sports series commemorative coins mainly include the Olympic Games, the World Cup football tournament, the Asian Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, the World Women's Football Championships, the Paralympic Games, the Military Games, etc., so far a total of 34 sports and 151 varieties have been issued.
In 2022, China is about to host the 24th Winter Olympic Games, for this reason, the Chinese Bank issued the 24th Winter Olympic Games commemorative coins, a total of 12 coins, this set of commemorative coins will alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, ice hockey and other sports style vividly displayed.
●Science and technology environmental protection and other theme series
In order to commemorate the historic international conference of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in 1992, the Chinese Bank issued a set of two silver coins commemorating the United Nations International Year of Environmental Protection in that year. The reverse of the two coins is composed of white clouds, mountains, trees, grasslands, rivers, camels, and flowers, and one of the girls is kneeling by the river to fetch water. Commemorative coins use a romantic expression to awaken the environmental awareness of the viewers. From 1992 to the present, in this series, China has issued a total of 8 projects and 89 varieties, mainly including ancient Chinese scientific and technological inventions and discoveries and environmental protection.
Collection essentials
Although the precious metal commemorative coin is exquisitely patterned and tall in temperament, due to its own high value, the collection threshold of precious metal commemorative coins is much higher than that of other collectibles. Precious metal commemorative coins have a wide range of themes, and the price difference is huge, there are more than 100 yuan of silver coins, there are also gold coins worth up to tens of millions of yuan, so collecting precious metal commemorative coins is not a simple thing.
● "Anti-false" should be kept in mind
When collecting precious metal commemorative coins, the first thing is to prevent the purchase of counterfeit coins. From ancient times to the present, counterfeit money has been a major problem that has plagued precious metal collectors in various countries. China's precious metal commemorative coins use the most advanced anti-counterfeiting technology in design and production, but the road is one foot high and the magic is one foot high, and ordinary collectors are still defenseless against counterfeit precious metal commemorative coins. For example, in 2010, the Hebei public security organs cracked a case of extraordinarily large manufacturing and trafficking of counterfeit precious metal commemorative coins. In this case, the counterfeiter used hydraulic presses, punching machines and other equipment to forge a large number of panda coins, zodiac coins, etc., causing extremely adverse social impact.
In the past decade, some criminals have taken advantage of the public's widespread attention to major commemorative events and hot topics to produce a wide range of imaginary coinage, exaggerating propaganda and fraudulent sales through the Internet. The pattern or theme of the imaginary coinage can not find the corresponding official information at all, it is completely a fake coin, and ordinary collectors should remain vigilant about this.
Here, consumers are reminded that the only regular sales channels for precious metal commemorative coins are subsidiaries of China Gold Coin Corporation, China Gold Coin Retail Center, China Gold Coin Online Mall, China Gold Coin Licensed Retailer Stores and Commercial Banks, and consumers can purchase precious metal commemorative coins from the above channels. At the same time, consumers should also take the initiative to learn and understand the relevant knowledge of precious metal commemorative coins, and recommend paying attention to official platforms such as the "China Gold Coin" WeChat public account and the China Gold Coin Network.
●Thematic collections
To put it simply, the special collection of precious metal commemorative coins is to find the direction and goal of collection in the all-encompassing category. At present, the collection topic can be classified according to the theme, each series of leading coins, materials, packaging, issuers, processes and other angles, you can choose a topic, you can also choose multiple topics. Here, from the perspective of the author's personal experience, I will give a small example.
The author began to contact precious metal commemorative coins in early 2015, and the first coin I bought was the 2015 Lunar New Year silver commemorative coin. This coin is not only the "dragon head coin" of the "Fu" coin, but also belongs to the Theme of the New Year, and this coin opens the author's precious metal commemorative coin collection journey. After several years of in-depth understanding of precious metal commemorative coins, the author has more clearly defined the purpose and direction of the collection - the package version of panda silver coins, and only collects 69 points of NGC (NGC is a long-established and highly recognized coin grading company in the United States, and the coin grading standard adopts the Sheldon scoring system of 70 points).
● Long-term holding
The market price of precious metal commemorative coins has risen and fallen, with a certain periodicity, and collectors can choose a purchase strategy according to the collection theme. For example, some commemorative coins with major commemorative event themes are often hyped to a high price in the early stage of issuance, and if you want to collect, you can start when the price falls and hold it for a long time.
For myself, panda silver coins are a particularly suitable variety for long-term holding. Of course, different collectors have different collection preferences, but adhering to the concept of thematic collection and long-term holding should be worth advocating.