Gecko's Silver Pandas - in a grid format

adamlaneus

#1 and #3 are now sharper...

Silvereagle82

gecko is going to love it

rgCoinGuy

adamlaneus

I had hoped that Gecko would chime in, giving more information.
I'll provide what I know...

These are the one ounce silver Pandas, in correct chronological order. These 12 pieces represent all of the unpainted items.

There are three more silver ounces, painted, for the years 1997 through 1999. Those do not appear in this set.

What I don't know is if there are any fractionals. Or if there are any other minor issues related to this set.


Personally, I am surprised how much things change from year to year. Each year has a different font, for example. Something I am unused to with US coinage.
The roman characters tend to be, but are not always, in a squared off style. Even the chinese glyphs change font from coin to coin. I cannot read them, but I am picking up on stylistic differences the more I look. I suspect I can deduce what the symbol is for "yuan".

gecko109

Adam, again a fantastic job with your "grid" production! These are not ordinary silver pandas, but rather the proofs. Proofs were not made every year, and this collection represents 12 of the 15 total possible pieces. The 3 pieces missing are the 97, 98, and 99 which were oddly "colorized" by the China mints. Thus I have zero interest in those "faux" pandas. The pandas above are in chronological order if you read them starting at the top from the RIGHT to the LEFT. The set starts with the 1983, 1984, 1985....The next line (again, from right to left) is the 1987, 1989, and 1990.....next is 91, 92, 93.....then 94, 95, and finally the 96. The HIGHEST mintage coin of the group is BY FAR the 1987 with 31,000 total pieces. The "famous" and "rare" 1995-W proof silver eagle is around 32,000 pieces I believe. To put things into perspective, if you totaled the entire mintage for all 12 of the pieces pictured above, the number is just 199,000. The LOWEST mintage silver proof eagle (other than the 95-W) was the 1994. Mintage on that one alone? over 380,000! So you can see just how scarce these gorgeous silver panda proofs actually are.

JCMhouston

What is "faux" about mint colorized Pandas, they still have an ounce of silver don't they?

gecko109

<< <i>What is "faux" about mint colorized Pandas, they still have an ounce of silver don't they? >>




Since 1983, China has been producing silver proof pandas. Since 1989 they have been producing silver BU pandas. For just those 3 years (1997-1999) they decided to colorize the coins. Call me old fashioned, but IMHO "colorizing" a coin is something thats done aftermarket by fly-by-night companies to turn a quick buck. I assume im not alone in my feelings on this since its been almost 10 years, and China has not made another colorized panda. Seems the people have spoken.

farthing

In current terms - colorizing a Panda "coin" is like putting lipstick on a pig.

gecko109

<< <i>In current terms - colorizing a Panda "coin" is like putting lipstick on a pig. >>




BINGO! Thats what I was trying to say!