In 1982, the Chinese panda gold coin was born. Over the past 40 years, panda coins, as a good product for collection, investment and gifts, have been favored by collectors at home and abroad, not only won awards in the world for many times, but also developed into one of the world's famous investment coins with the same name as Canadian maple leaf coins, American eagle foreign coins, Australian kangaroo coins, and South African Kruger coins.
In the design of panda coins, in addition to the 2001 version and the 2002 version of the same pattern, the panda coin patterns of other years have changed, which also provides a stage for the change of process technology. As an investment coin, Panda Coin has a large number of investors and collectors at home and abroad.
Compared with other commemorative coins, the issuance of panda coins is higher, and because of this, on the basis of ensuring quality, how to improve production capacity has always been the direction of research and efforts of mints.
In order to give everyone a better understanding of the production process of gold and silver coins, especially panda coins, I would like to share a special article on the development of panda coins in the past 40 years. In view of the rich content of the article, in order to fully understand everyone, we will divide into multiple consecutive pushes.
The process technology of gold and silver coin production is composed of two stages, one is the process technology of the pattern design and relief creation stage, and the other is the process technology of the gold and silver coin production stage, which is closely integrated and inseparable, and mutual influence and mutual promotion. The stage of pattern design and relief creation must take into account the process technology of the production stage of gold and silver coins, and the production stage of gold and silver coins must serve the process technology of pattern design and relief creation stage.
In the pattern design and relief creation, it is necessary to consider the process technology of the production stage, so that it is subordinate to and conducive to the large-scale production process technology, so as to ensure the smooth completion of the product mold and product imprint processing needs, so as to achieve the design effect and relief creation are in line with the production quality standards of the product. Therefore, there are many requirements for the process technology of pattern design and relief creation stage:
1, the composition should be reasonable and symmetrical, do not connect to the edge of the coin, the pattern of the central part of the coin surface can be slightly higher, and the pattern of the near edge part should be lower, so as not to affect the pressure foot of the clear edge of the product;
2. The front and back patterns should pay attention to collocation and stagger each other, so as not to overlap the highest point and affect the compression foot of the pattern;
3. The text and the pattern should be matched appropriately, and the front and back patterns should not overlap each other as much as possible;
4, product design to consider the final product size and product effect, the size of the text is appropriate, can not be too dense, too small, while the font line should be as thick as possible consistent, to avoid thickness disparity or sharp, angle, and so on.
It can be said that the artistry of pattern design and relief creation is the soul of the product, and the craft technology of the production stage is the basis for sublimating the soul, and the two complement each other and are the two indispensable keys to the achievement of each fine commemorative coin.
Development of surface effect process technology
The production of panda coins on the mainland began in 1982. In the production process, we directly adopted the international advanced mirror sandblasting process technology at that time, that is, the pattern pattern was formed by sand blasting to form a frost surface, which increased the three-dimensional sense and layering of the pattern relief. The bottom surface is ground into a mirror surface, which can produce a dazzling metallic luster. The contrast and contrast between the frost and mirror surfaces have obtained an extremely noble and exquisite visual effect.
1982 Panda 1 ounce general gold coins
At that time, in order to create the effect of black and white of the panda in the coin, we adopted such a process scheme in the early stage of pattern design and relief creation: in the panda eyes, ears, nose tip and limbs and other "black" parts of the body to do concave mirror treatment, in other "white" parts are still made according to normal relief production and normal sandblasting treatment, this is the concave refractive method, cleverly obtained the artistic effect of black and white, effectively highlighting the cute image of black and white panda, has been unanimously recognized and praised at home and abroad.
The 1983 panda coin continued this process and was a great success, with 1 ounce of gold and 27 grams of silver coins winning the Klaus World Coin Awards for "Best Gold Coin" and "Best Silver Coin" at the Klaus World Coin Awards.
1983 Panda 1 ounce general gold coins
1983 Panda 27g refined silver coin
This conventional mirror sandblasting process technology was used until the 1994 panda coin. Process technology can not be set in stone, in the continuous exchange and learning with the world's first-class mint institutions, the mainland's minting technology is also constantly developing. The 1995 edition of Panda Coin has made a historic breakthrough in surface effect, and the anti-sandblasting process technology has been successfully developed and applied. The so-called anti-sandblasting is relative to the mirror sandblasting, which is used in reverse, that is, the original sandblasting of the pattern is now changed to the mirror, and the bottom surface is originally used as a mirror, and now it is changed to sandblasting. This is done in reverse, giving another effect that is completely opposite. Through this process technology, the original concave engraving method was replaced to present the black and white color of the panda, and the satisfactory effect was achieved.
1995 Panda 1 ounce refined gold coins
In fact, the anti-sandblasting technology was first applied to the front of the 1992 panda coin (temple of heaven face), and achieved good results, but compared with the back of the 1995 panda coin (panda face) using the anti-sandblasting process technology to achieve slightly insufficient artistic appeal, therefore, 1995 is an important node for the anti-sand blasting process to truly achieve a breakthrough.
1992 edition panda gold coin front
On the basis of the successful development and application of anti-sandblasting process technology, we continued to explore and research, and soon found a third color in the mirror (similar to the black effect) and the sandblasted surface (similar to the white effect) (like adding gray to the black and white). The application of this technology greatly enriches the color level of the coin surface and enhances the expressiveness. This is the breakthrough of multi-level sandblasting process technology. Since then, the color level of the coin surface has been continuously enriched, until the current gradient sandblasting effect has been developed. The 2001 panda coin was the successful beginning of the multi-level sandblasting process, and since then, this technology has been widely used in commemorative coin products.
2001 Panda 1 kg silver coin
With the continuous development of technology, gold and silver inlay technology came into being. Gold and silver inlay can generally be divided into two kinds: one is a penetrating inlay (also known as a bimetal), that is, the use of two different layers of metal inside and outside for stitching and embossing, usually the inner core is gold, the outer ring is silver, and the two materials of gold and silver are combined by embossing. For example, the Panda Bimetallic Coin issued from 1993 to 1997 is a penetrating mosaic coin.
1993 Panda Bimetallic Coin
The other is a non-penetrating setting (also known as inlay), inlaid with gold by means of embossing on the surface of a silver product. For example, the commemorative silver coin of the 1996 Beijing International Coin Expo, which used this process to inlay a thin piece of gold on a 1 ounce of silver coin.
1996 Beijing International Numismatic Exposition commemorative silver coins
In 2002, the 20th anniversary of the issuance of the Chinese Panda Gold Coin, the 1 kg silver coin was also inlaid with two gold flakes with a 1 ounce gold coin pattern. This gold and silver inlay technology plays a role in embellishing the coin surface, giving the product a good artistic expression and making the product appear magnificent.
Chinese Panda Gold Coin 20th Anniversary 1 kg Gold Inlaid Commemorative Silver Coin
With the development of surface plating technology, on the basis of gold and silver inlay, through continuous development, we have successfully developed the local gilding technology of silver coin surface. Compared to gold and silver inlays, the surface is more flexible with gold plating. This process technology breaks the relative mechanical expression of gold and silver inlay, making gold and silver collocation proper and more expressive. The silver coins of the Beijing International Coin Expo issued in 1998 and 1999 used this process, and the theme pattern was partially gilded.
1998 Beijing International Numismatic Exposition commemorative silver coins
1999 Beijing International Coin Expo commemorative silver coins
The 2005 Beijing International Coin Expo Panda Plus Character Silver Coin is a partial gilding treatment of the clear edge, which enriches the means of expression of the product.
2005 Beijing International Numismatic Exposition commemorative silver coins
The application and perfect presentation of color printing technology in metal products breaks the limitation of a single color of gold and silver commemorative coins, makes the commemorative coins colorful, bright and dazzling, and finally produces colorful color coins. For example, the 1997 edition of 1-ounce, 1/2-ounce color panda silver coins, is the use of color pad printing process technology. Since then, the technology has been widely used in gold and silver coin products.
1997 Panda 1 ounce colored silver coin
In recent years, the color printing process technology has been further improved, and the color spraying process technology developed has embarked on the historical stage of color gold and silver coin production, and gradually replaced the color pad printing process technology. Compared with the color pad printing process, the color spraying process technology has the great advantage of flexibility and changeability, which can adjust the color and size at any time, and use ultraviolet curing color, which greatly enhances the combination of color and metal. At the same time, it effectively solves the problem that the color pad printing process technology can only be applied to the plane, and realizes the production mode of making colors on the relief surface.
Laser holographic (or illusion) technology, also known as optical variable technology (OVD), is obtained by mathematical analysis based on interference physics, and its purpose is to create novel and special optical effects. OVD has many applications in business, as well as on banknotes and credit cards. Now, OVD is used on gold and silver commemorative coins. It is mainly used to enhance the color or make it appear rainbow in the selected area of a large pattern, and can also be used to reduce the probability of being counterfeited. The 5-gram gold coin for the 35th anniversary of the release of the Chinese Panda Gold Coin issued in 2017 uses laser holographic technology to make the product present a dazzling visual effect.
China Panda Gold Coin issued 35th anniversary 5 grams commemorative gold coin
Exquisite process technology can make the product more expressive, so that the product to gain a new vitality. Only by continuously researching and exploring and continuously improving in process technology can we create more exquisite commemorative coins and meet people's pursuit of beauty.
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Author | Zhang Bin
This article is transferred from the WeChat public account of gold coin culture, with slight editing adjustments