At the beginning of the new year, the People's Bank of China issued a set of 12 "2024 China Jiachen (Dragon) Year Precious Metal Commemorative Coins" (referred to as Dragon Year Commemorative Coins), including 7 gold commemorative coins, 4 silver commemorative coins and 1 platinum commemorative coin, all of which are legal tender of the People's Republic of China. The Year of the Dragon commemorative coins are more popular than in previous years, and many netizens said that they "can't grab it". On the second-hand trading platform, a set of commemorative banknotes and commemorative coins with a face value of 600 yuan were speculated to about 1,000 yuan.
Jiachen commemorative coin for the Year of the Dragon
Mr. Mei, a post-00s Nanjing citizen who has been collecting commemorative coins for many years, told the Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter: "The eyes are bright, and they look better than the Year of the Tiger. "Not long ago, the special stamp of the Year of the Dragon Zodiac was also released. Mr. Mei also bought a set of booklets for his dragon son. Mr. Mei said that nowadays, whether it is the theme of commemorative coins or zodiac stamps, the design is becoming more and more exquisite, "straight to the hearts of the people", and he is also optimistic about the investment "money scene".
Jiachen Year of the Dragon commemorative banknote
Analysts say there are several reasons behind the hot sale of commemorative coins for the Year of the Dragon. On the one hand, the Chinese are known as the "descendants of the dragon", and the dragon means good fortune in China. On the other hand, the commemorative currency itself has certain financial attributes and investment functions. From the perspective of 2023, the performance of various investment market channels, including the stock market, is relatively flat, and more investors hope to turn their funds to other investment products and make some new attempts. Although the Lunar New Year commemorative banknote is a small investment target, it will still attract some investors.
Judging from the performance of the second-hand market, the Year of the Dragon commemorative banknotes were quickly fried to nearly 1,000 yuan after the exchange appointment, and the premium rose in a short period of time. On the one hand, this is related to the high popularity of the "dragon" in the zodiac, and investors who cannot make an appointment to exchange it may turn to the second-hand platform to trade; on the other hand, the collection investment value of commemorative coins is similar to that of philately, the more people like stamp collecting, the higher the premium of stamps in the second-hand market, the hotter the investment, and the same logic is that the Year of the Dragon commemorative coins are favored. In addition, the premium of commemorative coins is also related to factors such as the number of commemorative coins and their design. Since 1988, the People's Bank of China has issued four commemorative coins for the Year of the Dragon, and the commemorative banknotes for the second time. Compared with commemorative coins, commemorative banknotes are not only rarer, but also have more design space and are easier to make exquisite designs. It has been reported that the 100 yuan "Millennium Dragon Banknote" issued in 2000 was as high as 3,000 yuan per piece when it was popular, and even now the price is about 1,600 yuan per piece.
However, investors should be reminded that even if the premium of the Year of the Dragon commemorative banknotes is higher in the short term, there are certain risks associated with any "speculation". First, although commemorative banknotes are issued in limited quantities, on the whole, commemorative banknotes are industrialized assembly line products like stamps, and with the increase in issuance thereafter, the space for premium will shrink with the passage of time and market changes. Of course, the price of individual commemorative coins may continue to rise, but the overall premium space will not necessarily increase. Investors should not hold the speculative mentality that the Year of the Dragon commemorative currency can rise by 10 times and 100 times. Second, high premiums may be an artificially created short-term phenomenon, and in a certain period of time in the transaction, there may be collective information asymmetry, such as "scalpers" deliberately creating a "scarcity" phenomenon, so that investors observe the price of commemorative coins and banknotes soaring in a short period of time. The collection market of commemorative coins and commemorative banknotes itself is still relatively niche, and the internal transactions are not very transparent, and it is worth being vigilant for investors to take over at a high level.
In general, whether it is a commemorative coin or a commemorative banknote, in the end, it is mainly based on the collection function, if the scarcity is not very obvious, then the price is very high in the short term, and this premium itself is also "unreliable". Investors should be wary of the risks.
Source: Purple Cow News