Trial Strikes: A Logical Analysis of and Empirical Inference on a Secret of Dragon Coins

By Quanmo Yishanren
05/23/2013

http://bbs.bqcoin.com/read-htm-tid-3280.html

This article will reflect on the dragon culture and dragon coins in China, focusing on the logical analysis of and empirical inference on a unique phenomenon of dragon coins. The purpose is to lift the shroud on a mystery and to explore the culture and varieties of Chinese precious metal coins. Reader comments are welcome, so that the subject can be studied in depth and the issue further researched.

I.                    Dragon Culture and Dragon Coins

(Omitted – translator)

II.                  Highlight and Mystery of the 1988 Lunar Dragon Coins

1988 was a year in the Chinese numismatic history that deserves close attention, because it was not only the first year after the formal founding of the China Gold Coin Inc. on December 22, 1987, but also the Year of Dragon in the lunar calendar system. The Central Bank started the 1 oz, 5 oz and 12 oz gold coin types when releasing the lunar coins, which have been very popular among Chinese gold coins. Among the small number of gold and silver coins of the year, many have been the topics of conversation up till today. It is not an exaggeration to say that error coins, error medals, patterns and world award winning coins all happened to make their appearance this very year! These include the error coin of the 15^th Winter Olympics silver coin (mistaken for 16^th), the error commemorative gold medal for the Basel Coin Week, the wrong use of the design on the 24^th Olympics gold and silver coins as well as the rumor of their patterns, the rare phenomenon on the design on the obverse of the 1988 5 oz silver panda, and the mystery of the lunar Dragon coins. Among these, the Dragon coins are quite an eye opener!

Although we are only 25 years away from 1988, the time through the quarter of a century obliterated many facts, including the complete historical information on the approval, production and sales of the lunar Dragon coins. Against the fast moving China and Chinese gold coins after the reform and opening up, everything seems to be fading away with the passage of time. If we fail to dig out and comb through historical data in a timely fashion right now, we will leave even more doubts and bigger mysteries to the next generations. If we are lucky, we can manage to restore the truth in the coming days. The mystery of the varieties of the 1 oz Dragon coins is one such case.

1.       Outstanding Year of Dragon Coins

Among the 1988 Dragon coin types, the 1 oz and 12 oz coins were minted by Shanghai Mint. The theme of twin dragons playing a ball was taken from the artistic work on the Nine Dragon Screen in the Imperial Garden. The design came from Mr. Zhu Dechun, who is now deceased. The 12 oz coin was engraved by Mr. Zeng Chenghu of Shanghai Mint, and the 1 oz coin was engraved by Mr. Yi Shizhong, who was working for Shanghai Mint then. For that matter, the design of the twin dragons playing with a ball on the 1 oz platinum, gold and silver coins was slightly different from that on the 12 oz gold and silver coins.

Later, it was proved that the 1988 lunar Dragon coins were more than outstanding. The 1 oz gold, silver and platinum coins became the flagships of their respective series. Moreover, the 12 oz silver coin won the "Best Silver Coin" award at the 1990 Klaus and World Coin News World Coin Grand Prix. Even today, the 1 oz piedfort silver lunar coins series, with its start in the Year of Dragon, are still chased by lunar coin collectors.

2.        Mystery Surrounding the 1 Oz Lunar Dragon Coins

Interestingly, the two obvious varieties of the 1 oz gold and silver Dragon coins gradually caught collectors' attention. As officials keep their mouth shut, common folks have different interpretations, including the so-called "large date" and "small date" varieties, with the large dates from Shenyang Mint. Other claims include sighting of the large date gold coins in a ten-piece plastic sheet, and large date platinum Dragon coins.

a.       Initial Exploration of the Varieties of 1 Oz Lunar Dragon Coins and Counter Argument

Despite the different views in the collector community, the first person who focused on this issue was Mr. Ge Zukang. He contributed a special post "On the Different Minor Varieties of 1988 Lunar Year of the Dragon Gold Coins" (http://bbs.jibi.net/dispbbs.asp?boardid=70&Id=204471) in July, 2010, thus opening a door for discussing this issue. Only Mr. Ge missed a couple of points in our current view when he discussed the varieties of the 1 oz Dragon coins, probably because it was the first time for him to touch on this issue: First, he defined the varieties of the Dragon coins as minor. In my view, these different varieties are far from minor. (I have my own definitions of major and minor varieties. Those interested can refer to http://bbs.chngc.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=42969&extra=) Secondly, in the varieties that Mr. Ge analyzed, Zeng Chenghu Variety 1 actually does not exist. It is a picture taken from the official catalogs of the China Gold Coin Inc. There is no such physical coin. (Just in passing, there is no shortage of similar official pictures from China Gold Coin Inc. Although some are indeed pattern designs, more are just distorted pictures.) The Yi Shizhong Varieties 2 and 3 are actually the same, the only difference being that Variety 2 is a picture of the coin, while Variety 3 was the physical coin. That means that only Yi Shizhong Varieties 3 and 4 actually exist. Third, it is not quite right to call them Yi Shizhong varieties, because the difference is on the obverse, and the obverse was not engraved by Mr. Yi Shizhong. The so-called "large date" variety not only has a large date, but all the other details are different. It is because the obverse of the so-called "large date" 1 oz Dragon coin was taken from the obverse of the 1 oz Panda gold coin of that year. The designer of the obverse and reverse of the 1988 1 oz Panda gold coin was Mr. Yan Jingkui. (The 1986 Panda gold coin designed and engraved by Mr. Yan Jingkui won the "National One Hundred Flowers Award for Arts and Crafts".) The engraver of the non-large date variety of the 1 oz Dragon coins was Mr. Chen Jian of Shanghai Mint, who engraved the obverse of the 1982-1984 and 1987 Panda gold coins. In this sense, the so-called Yi Shizhong Varieties 2 and 3, which are the non-large date Dragon coins, should be Chen Jian Variety, and the Yi Shizhong Variety 4, which is the so-called "large-date variety", should be Yan Jingkui Variety.

b.       Further Investigation of the 1 Oz Lunar Dragon Coins

We have gained a basic understanding of the 1988 1 oz lunar Dragon coins. But a crucial question arises for the masses of coin collectors and researchers: Why did two varieties of the 1 oz Dragon coins turn up, the Yan Jingkui Variety (Yan Variety for short) and the Chen Jian Variety (Chen Variety for short)? What is their significance and what was their respective mintage?

In fact, before looking further into these questions, we have to bring up the 1 oz piedfort Dragon silver coin and the 1 oz Dragon platinum coin, because so far, in addition to the common Chen Variety 1 oz piedfort silver Dragon, we have observed on the market the more scarce Yan Variety 1 oz piedfort silver Dragon. Moreover, the difference between the Chen Variety and the Yan Variety piedfort silver coins is not limited to the obverse. The designs of two dragons playing a ball on the reverse are obviously different, which does not exist on the gold Dragon coins of the Chen and Yan Varieties. It is rumored that someone saw the platinum Dragon coin of the Yan Variety. I am not going to dwell on it since I have never seen it. As for the official coin pictures of the 1 oz piedfort silver Dragon, the only record available is in the official book The Printing and Minting of Modern Chinese Currencies, published by the China Financial Publishing House in 1998. In addition to the picture of the silver coin of the Yan Variety on page 147, it specifically mentions the few "new technological successes for our country's commemorative coins through continuous research and experiment……'Two dragons playing a ball' proof lunar gold and silver coins were first released in 1988" in Bullet 3 of "Minting Technologies" under the minting "Exploration and Innovation" section on page 150.

This shows that the Chen and Yan Varieties not only exists on the 1 oz gold coin, but also on the 1 oz silver coin, and probably on the platinum coin. Returning to the topic above, why did these varieties occur?

Through inquiries to those involved, and based on official written data available for perusing now (which are my own methods of research), the basic conclusion is: the Yan Variety Dragon coins were trial strikes from the need to test technologies in the trial production of coin types of these specifications. This is my basic understanding of the coin types after excluding them from the possibilities of fakes, error coins or special strikes, and this understanding is agreed on by Shanghai Mint. The answer from the mint to my conclusion that the 1 oz Dragon coins were trial strike is: it was the first time for the mint to produce coin types of these specifications. Due to the lack of technical readiness and time crunch, the die of the obverse of the Panda gold coin of the year was used temporarily in the trial production of the Dragon coins. By the time of formal production, the matching obverse design was still not available. As it was considered improper to use exactly the same design as the obverse of the Panda gold coins of that year, the obverse of the 1987 Panda gold coin was adopted, which was also a world renowned classic design. The 1 oz lunar coins started to have a uniform obverse design of the national emblem with flowers from the 1989 Snake coin to the 1999 Rabbit coin. In fact, as far as the possibilities I can come up with, I feel that apart from technical considerations, decision-making and human relations during that particular historical period might also have played a role in the background of this issue. Of course the actual happenings on this perspective are difficult to investigate, and it might not be a good idea to do so as our focus is on the varieties themselves.

Has our current understanding of the coins as trial strikes added new members to the rank of Chinese precious metal coin patterns on the market, with interesting and simultaneous appearance of coins made of gold, silver and platinum? It may not be that simple, because there are different views on Chinese precious metal coin patterns in the trade, especially among coin collectors. These differences arise on the nature of patterns, their categorization and their valuation. We can refer to the patterns of milled coins of the pre-PRC times in our understanding and determination of Chinese precious metal coin patterns, but they are also distinctly different. Those patterns of milled coins of the pre-PRC times are no longer under the legal protection of our country, and so many of them are fakes (as their steel dies are available at auctions) with no legal protection. On the other hand, the patterns of Chinese precious metal coins, as the currency issued by the current regime, are not suffering from this weakness. Yet they are faced with another dilemma: according to the applicable law of our country, patterns of issued coins are confidential, while patterns of unissued coins are top secrets. Under these conditions, what is the proper perspective on patterns? Thanks to the unique circumstances during the specific historical period, some patterns of early Chinese gold coins still turn up on the market, get circulated and fall into strong hands. This is a highly interesting numismatic phenomenon deserving close watch! It is worth further exploration in the future.

A related question is the quantity of the patterns. Based on the consensus on the market and in the collector community, patterns of Chinese gold coins are very small in number! Without agreement on the nature and concept of patterns, some would claim that a pattern should be the only specimen; others say that patterns normally come in four. The 1989 Dragon and Phoenix and the 1992 Dragon and Horse are relatively larger in number with undetermined quantity, but still remain extremely rare. These facts remind us that our understanding and research of patterns still need improvement! As for the number of the 1 oz Dragon coins of the Yan Variety, we cannot decide on their individual mintage, but based on the norm of trial strikes at that time, they should be very small in number – currently, it is mostly the 1 oz gold Dragon coin of the Yan Variety that is sighted once in a while. Even though trial strikes do not have a fixed number in production, i.e. they can be more or less, depending on how soon the specifications are met, what is the largest number by estimate? According to those working at the mints, the maximum number of trial strikes is a few dozen. Of course, when it is hard to find the number in the records, we can let time solve the puzzle as it flows on. The purpose of my focusing on this topic and of my research is to promote and expand the awareness among more people, so that owners of these coins will come forward. That will take us closer to truth!

c.       Looking Deeper into the Mystery of the Varieties of the Lunar Dragon Coins

Apart from previous discussions, the following question may be asked: since the design, production and melting of trial strikes follow a relatively strict procedure, how did the 1 oz Dragon coins of the Yan Variety survive melting and make it to the market, if they were indeed trial strikes?

With our holistic view of the Chinese precious metal coins during the 80s and 90s, my conclusions through comprehensive observation and investigation include the following: (1). This coin is not unique in getting to the market. Other trial strikes are available on the market, too. Even trial strikes of gold coins with the wording "Pattern" on them have been sighted. Some trial strikes currently deemed extremely rare were sold from official channels. For example Quanyouzhai (name of an official coin outlet – translator) sold the gold trial strikes of the Decade of Women. (2). The business meeting held on October 20, 1995 by China Gold Coin Inc. to focus on the inventory of gold and silver commemorative coins (on page 29 of Annual Book of China Gold Coin Inc., 1987-2007) specifically cited what needed to be removed from the coin inventories, which included two categories of gold and silver coins: those not minted according to approved patterns and those minted beyond the planned mintage. In 2002, the China Gold Coin Inc. monitored their melting following the document Approval of Melting of Some Gold and Silver Commemorative Coin Inventories from the Gold and Silver Division of the Central Bank. This proves that the Dragon coin of the Yan Variety was not a unique case. (3). As a legal entity, the China Gold Coin Inc., registered and founded at the end of 1987, did allow for leeway for such coins to be marketed due to ownership and similar issues in its own process of adopting independent accountability and self-financing.

Although I cannot claim that the mystery of the 1 oz Dragon coins is totally cleared up for now, at least we have a better understanding of this issue. Or we can say that another window is opened to gain more knowledge about it. The Numismatic Society of Shanghai Mint has included these coins in their study after I contacted them for information. It is said that the Rongli Institute in Shanghai (under the management of Huang Ruiyong – translator) is also working on them. I hope more people can join the research on this coin, and reach more solid and convincing conclusions!

III.                The Motivation and Purpose of My Research on the 1 Oz Dragon Coins

I have three motivations/purposes in the research of the 1988 1 oz Dragon coins as an individual case of study:

First, through this case study, I wish to explore the mechanism of some phenomena associated with early Chinese gold coins, so that I can better grasp similar phenomena and trigger collective reflections and explorations by fellow collectors of Chinese gold coins as an attempt of empirical study and cultural development. This case study in particular can enrich and deepen my knowledge of Chinese numismatics. The publication of my initial research findings can trigger discussions, which may in turn lead me as the researcher to more findings! Of course, by sharing the findings, more people will stand to gain knowledge or benefit.

Second, through this research, I wish to gain better understanding and a more rational estimate of the trial strikes of Chinese gold and silver coins. At present, it seems that trial strikes are deemed extremely elusive and expensive, beyond the reach of common folks. The reality may be very different. Although there is a big gap between the numismatic culture and valuation of coins of our country and those countries relatively more developed, we in fact have our originality and a solid foundation in numismatic research. What we need is the building of a Chinese gold coin culture and expansion of the market, based on correct understanding of the coins and of ourselves.

Third, this study opens our eyes to many anecdotes and research subjects previously unknown or unfamiliar to us. These anecdotes are extremely interesting, and the research subjects offer chances of great value. For those who are devoted to the enjoyment and study of coins, these research subjects are well worth watching out for and getting deeply involved in, which in turn will greatly accelerate the evolution of Chinese gold coins and the numismatic culture. 

Nine Dragon Screen (added by translator)

Research Article: Explore the Actual Mintage and Restrikes of Precious Metal Coins from the PRC

By Huang Ruiyong
http://bbs.jibi.net/dispbbs.asp?boardid=91&Id=119905

Generally speaking, actual mintage is a number in contrast to planned mintage. Just as the name suggests, actual mintage is the actual number of a coin or medal actually minted. In the case of modern Chinese precious metal coins, actual mintage is highly significant, because it reflects very vividly the release history of modern Chinese precious metal coins. As we all know, the primary function of the early modern Chinese precious metal coins was to bring back foreign exchange, while promoting Chinese politics and culture worldwide. Except for coins for important political events, many coins before Year 2000 were initiated by overseas distributors, who came to the People's Bank of China for approval and announcing the release. Then they would seek out Shanghai Mint, Shenyang Mint or Shenzhen Guobao Mint for production before distributing the coins. For example, the Historical Figures series gold and silver coins were distributed by MDM in Germany; 8 gram lunars and dodecagonal Birds gold and silver coins were distributed by the Hong Kong Peking Coin Company Limited; the Guilin Scenery gold and silver coins were distributed by Ocean Gold Coins in Hong Kong; the Ancient Inventions and Discoveries series were distributed by PandaAmerica; the early Guanyin series gold and silver coins were distributed by Chien Hsiung Liu Co. in the US; the Unicorn series were distributed by Assets Marketing Co; the Silk Road series gold and silver coins were distributed by ING in Belgium… Fortunately, after Year 2000, distribution of Chinese precious metal coins was consolidated. Almost all the products have been distributed by the China Gold Coin Co., to the Kaiyuan Retail Center in Beijing, Shenzhen Retail Center, Hong Kong Great Wall Coins Investments Ltd., as well as MDM in Germany and PandaAmerica.

In the early years, the distributors proposed different product specs and planned mintage for precious metal coins because their capacity and channels varied. Under normal circumstances, the distributor would generally avoid producing the full planned mintage, because 1. They wanted to test market reaction to the coin; 2. They had to put together a large amount of money for the material and manufacturing cost. The distributor would ask for termination or suspension of production of a certain coin if the following occurred:

1.   The market did not react favorably to the coin;
2.   The distributor's business operations and cash flow were disrupted;
3.   Management team change at the People's Bank of China, the China Gold Coin Co. (or China Mint Company) or the distributor.

When this happened, the concept of actual mintage, which is on every collector's mind, would come into the focus.

With this explanation of actual mintage (original actual mintage), we all see that actual mintage has a big impact on the assessment of the rarity of a certain coin, because it is the essence of collection that rarity determines the price. But we may be concerned with two more questions at the same time:

1.   How are the data of actual mintage of various precious metal coins obtained?
2.   How do we treat the rumor widespread on the web of restrikes by Shanghai Mint of some types during 2001 to 2005?

Here are my answers to the two questions above:

1.   The data on actual mintage has to be verified by using materials from many sources. This is a dynamic verification process. So far, no institutions or individuals have been able to come up with accurate actual mintage numbers of all the precious metal coins from the PRC. This problem resulted from the overwhelming power of the distributors before 2000, who could directly influence the entire process of project approval, announcement, production and sales. Moreover, domestic supervisory and production organizations did not maintain complete, systematic records. In this light, in order to obtain a clear understanding of actual mintage, the following needs to be investigated:

Historical distribution records of the these companies: China Mint Company, China Gold Coin Co., China Coins Limited;

Historical production records of these organizations: Shanghai Mint, Shenyang Mint, Guobao Mint, Swiss Faude & Huguenin, Swiss Pamp Mint, Swiss Vacambi Mint, and Perth Mint of Australia;

All the sales records of distributors and retailers, including: Hong Kong Great Wall Coins Investments Ltd., Peking Coin Company Limited, PandaAmerica, MDM of Germany, Japanese Taisei Coins Corporation, ING of Belgium and so on.

This is a very arduous and complex process, which must be treated with absolute seriousness. Through the collaboration of both official and civilian efforts, the issue of actual mintage is expected to be worked out for the most part.

2.   Restrikes of some coins by Shanghai Mint after Year 2000 are described as follows:

According to records in the Yearbook of Shanghai Mint (2002-2003), Yearbook of Shanghai Mint (2004), Yearbook of Shanghai Mint (2005) and Yearbook of Shanghai Mint (2006), all the restrikes of coins before Year 2000 are listed below, in Table 1, 2 and 3:

(The tables are translated, merged and formated in this link: http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=18.msg15153#msg15153)

OK. Let me explain the restrikes from Tables 1 to 3.

First of all, restrikes are not unique to China. Other countries in the world also make restrikes, but they all exercise extreme caution when doing so. Here is an example. When Hong Kong issued lunar gold coins years ago, wild speculations followed because of the limited mintage, and the price skyrocketed. The British Authority in Hong Kong immediately decided to restrike the balance in the planned mintage, which contributed to the stabilization of the price.

Now let's take a look at the explanations from the currency issuing authorities on the restrikes of precious metal coins. The following quotations are from an administrator of the Gold and Silver Currency Division of the People Bank of China:

A.   For precious metal coins issued in the years of China Mint Company (i.e. before 1987), China Gold Coin Co. cannot apply for restrikes even if the planned mintage was not fulfilled, because these were different projects managed by two organizations, unless the precious metal coins had a theme that carried over from China Mint Company to China Gold Coin Co. (such as Historical Figures gold and silver coins). That is to say, independent themes before 1987, such as the 1983 Marco Polo gold and silver coins, the 1986 Year of Peace gold and silver coins will be excluded from restrike applications from China Gold Coin Co.

B.   For precious metal coins issued by the People's Bank of China and distributed by China Gold Coin Co., sufficient reasons must be provided for restrikes, to be approved by the Gold and Silver Currency Division of the People's Bank of China. Moreover, if the quantity of the requested restrikes is too small (below 5,000 pieces in one application), the proposal for restrikes will most likely be rejected. (Comment: this information will make collectors happy who follow the natural law of collection, because many types with a small mintage will not be restruck. The original actual mintage becomes an excellent reference).

C.   Starting last year, all the newly approved precious metal coins will not be announced by the People's Bank of China if less than 70% of the planned mintage is met, and certainly will not be approved for production. If the newly approved precious metal coins reach 70% of the planned mintage, the balance can be restruck, but the approved restrike window is one year. (Comment: this information will make collectors feel certain about the release mintage of new coins.)

We cannot talk about restrikes without mentioning the other important term: melting. Melting is exactly the opposite to restriking. What are the historical records of melting in official books? 2007 was the 20th anniversary of the founding of China Gold Coin Co. In the book "History of China Gold Coin Co." written by the editorial committee of the book, cases of past handling of precious metal coin and medal inventories by the China Gold Coin Co. are clearly laid out:

The first time occurred on October 20, 1995. China Gold Coin Co. called an official meeting to focus on the inventories of gold and silver commemorative coins. The meeting decided that: the production facilities would check large size panda silver coins (including 5 oz and 12 oz ones) minted before 1993. Twenty specimens would be preserved. Any surplus over that would be melted.

The second time was the 2002 official reply from the Gold and Silver Currency Division of the People's Bank of China on the melting of some of the commemorative gold and silver coin and medal inventories. (Document No. 20 in 2002 by the Division). This official reply required China Gold Coin Co. to melt some of the gold and silver coin inventories, all the gold and silver medals and all the patterns of unreleased gold and silver coins. Shanghai Mint and Shenyang Mint were asked to monitor the melting of the gold and silver coin and medal inventories. Between these two mints, Shenyang Mint was responsible for monitoring the melting of: 111,593 gold coins and medals, 251,564 silver coins and medals, and 3,909 bi-metal coins, which contained 794 kilograms of gold and 7,358 kilograms of silver. Shanghai Mint was responsible for monitoring the melting of: 108,814 gold coins and medals, 188,275 silver coins and medals, and 16 bi-metal coins, which contained 916 kilograms of gold and 6,228 kilograms of silver. (Comment: this happened exactly as China Gold Coin Co. was implementing a policy of quality products with strict control of quantity. The scope of this move was totally unexpected. We may say that with this large scale melting, China Gold Coin Co. depleted most of its inventories.)

Now let's go back to the restrikes in Tables 1 to 3:

A.   In 2003, the kilo gold Tang Dynasty Vault Protector was restruck. The kilo silver Tang Dynasty Vault Protector was restruck in 2003 and 2004. The Tang Dynasty Vault Protector coins were distributed by Hong Kong Peking Coin Company Limited (later on renamed as Hong Kong China Coin Company Limited). When the coins were first marketed in 1998, the coin market was very slow. The distributor later on requested restrikes to make up for their loss. Peking Coin Company Limited was a long-time business partner of China Gold Coin Co. The 8 gram lunars distributed by them were a huge success. Afterwards, the company made their name with lunar coins. The restrikes of the Tang Dynasty Vault Protector coins were a special case of a market compensation contract. If restrikes could be used to make profits, Peking Coin Company Limited would have taken advantage of their strong public relation skills and asked Shenyang Mint to mint 8 gram gold Rat at full speed.

B.   The 1999 Water Spraying Guanyin coins are gold gilt silver coins. According to informed sources at Shanghai Mint, the condition of the coins in the warehouse was horrible because of bad storage environment. When China Gold Coin Co. came to pick up the order, the condition of the coins was considered below the standards of fiat currency. Shanghai Mint melted all the inventory, and then re-minted the same number of coins as melted.

C.   We may notice that the Historical Figures silver coins were continuously restruck. This is why we find brand new complete sets of Historical Figures silver coins at Lugong and Madian markets. There was a big story behind this set, as those were no ordinary restrike orders. The original distributor of this set was MDM in Germany. In the catalog of precious metal coins and medals by Mr. Ge Zukang, the actual mintage was very different from the planned mintage. But later on, MDM got in contact with a Hong Kong businessman by way of a coin dealer at the Lugong Market, and obtained the approval for restrikes through China Gold Coin Co. after many twists and turns. The quantity of the restrikes was very surprising. This restrike plan stirred up a lot of noise (the People's Bank of China was not aware of these restrikes at first). For this reason, managers at China Gold Coin Co. responsible for the project were moved to other positions in order to cool down complaints. This set of coins will have more restrikes as it was an international project with the contract already in place.

D.   The Silk Road silver coins were restruck in 2004 and 2005. The distributor of this set was ING in Belgium. It was another international project, similar to the Historical Figures silver coins. As the contract was already in place, there was no option but to restrike the coins.

E.   Two specimens of the 1987 12 oz gold Panda, the 1991 12 oz gold Panda and the 1996 20 oz Unicorn were restruck in 2004. These were normal restrikes, as they were needed for China Gold Coin Co. to showcase the coins.

With all this knowledge, we now have a better understanding of the actual mintage and restrikes, instead of seeing restrikes as fearful threats. We now know that theoretically, all the precious metal coins are likely to be restruck in the future if the actual mintage falls short of the planned mintage. But in fact the possibility of restrikes will diminish, to the degree of being negligible, because the Banking Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on Renminbi of People's Republic of China will be further refined. As fiat currency, the approval, production and sales of precious metal coins will be further regulated. Restrikes will have a political impact. As collector and researchers, we need to understand the reason for restrikes of some individual coins. Also, after learning about restrikes of these coins, we should know that occasional restrikes of such coins cannot be viewed as the harbinger for restriking all the precious metal coins, just as we do not rush to get rid of all our color coin collections when we occasionally find a lot of color paint peeling off on one color coin.

Finally, precious metal coins from the PRC usually have a smaller actual mintage than the planned mintage. With early coins, the actual mintage was far lower than the planned mintage, such as the 1/2 oz gold Ancient Maritime Ships and the 1 oz gold Sun Yat-Sen. We often see the actual mintage exceeded the planned mintage by a few or a few dozen specimens. Don't panic. The extra specimens were patterns. For example, the 5 oz gold Huangdi Mausoleum had a planned mintage of 99, but the actual mintage was 100. The extra specimen was a pattern. Another example is the 5 oz Longmen, which had a planned mintage of 288. But the actual mintage was 292. Again the extra 4 specimens were patterns. Among the precious metal coins from the PRC, there were a couple of cases where the actual mintage was more than the planned mintage by 10%, but this is very rare.

Conclusions:

Actual mintage is an important parameter in the collection of precious metal coins from the PRC. It reflects their history at the same time. The dynamic change of the actual mintage of a certain type is closely related to restrikes. For new collectors, they can start on their journey of value collection and value investment by getting to know the planned mintage of the precious metal coins. Here is an example. In 1989, China issued a palladium panda coin. This was the only palladium panda coin in the whole world in the 20th century. The planned mintage was 3,000. However, because of the political events of that year, the actually mintage was only 1,367. When the price of palladium shot up a few years ago, the distributor, Mr. Lim Beng Haw, melted a lot from his inventory, leaving the coin all the more rare. Even if the new collector does not know about the actual mintage and melting, he or she can determine that the coin is well worth collecting based merely on the planned mintage and the fact that it was the only palladium panda coin in the 20th century. For each and every coin issued by PRC before the 21st century, the information on their approval, production and distribution is far from complete, which demands great efforts for us to research them carefully and continuously. We all have to pitch in and collect valid information from all channels, before finally establishing a systematic and complete academic theory on precious metal coins from the PRC.

Feng Yunming and Early Semi-Official Medals

Before China Mint, some commemorative medals were made by the Beijing Radio Instrument Factory and distributed by the China National Arts&Crafts Co. and Guangzhou Zhenyi Co., Ltd. (mainly to Hong Kong). There are different names for these early medals："prehistoric" medals, early privately minted medals and early semi-official medals. Following Huang Ruiyong, I will use "early semi-official medals" because these medals were minted for official occasions. This post is intended to help collectors identify them when they turn up on the market. Data in this post are taken from Feng Jingjing's post (http://www.bqcoin.com/read-htm-tid-1301.html) and Yu Fuhui's post (http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4e39865b01009n89.html). I am just summarizing their findings.

When China was opening up right after the Cultural Revolution, the need came up to issue commemorative medals for some important events, such as the first Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong in 1979 and the Exhibition of Chinese Painting in Hong Kong in the same year. Feng Yunming, who graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and had been a jewelry designer, lecturer and business manager, was entrusted with designing these early medals. He lived up to the trust. The medals he designed proved to be very popular and often sold out quickly as reported by the media. For their success, Mr. Feng is regarded as the pioneer in medal designing in the PRC. Later on, when China Mint started to mint commemorative coins and medals, these semi-official medals were gradually phased out.

The collectability of such early semi-official medals is still an open question. Top MCC collectors and dealers value them as an important (though short) episode in the history of modern Chinese numismatics. Many of Feng's medals have made it to the medal star list by Huang Ruiyong, as listed below. Yet average collectors simply ignore them because of their "semi-official" status (not from the state-run mints) and their less than perfect design and striking quality, as compared with the later China Mint releases. Another interesting fact is that despite their not-so-small mintage, they are hardly available on the market. Their investment potential is unknown at the moment as there is little sales data available.

Mr. Feng Yunming

Gold medal for the Exhibition of Archaeological Finds in Hong Kong 

(based on the Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow bronze statue, a national treasure. See discussions here: https://www.coincompendium.com/w/index.php/CCT2514)

Mintage: 780

Ranking: 4 stars

Silver medal set for the Exhibition of Archaeological Finds in Hong Kong

Mintage:3,000

Ranking: 3 stars

Lu Xun medal set with amazing boxes

Mintage：5,000

Ranking: gold – 4 stars; silver – 3 stars

Silver medal set for the Chinese Painting Exhibition in Hong Kong

Mintage: 3,000

Ranking: 2 stars

Purchase coupon:

Silver medal set for flight between Hong Kong and Shanghai/Hangzhou

Mintage:5000

Ranking: 3 stars

Gold medal for flight between Hong Kong and Beijing

Mintage: ?

Ranking: 3 stars

Gold medal for the 70^th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution

Mintage: 6,000

Ranking: 3 stars

(Picture unavailable)

Silver medal for the 70^th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution

Mintage: 15,000

Ranking: 3 stars

Silver medal for restoration of Sino-American diplomatic relations

Mintage: 2500

Ranking: 3.5 stars

Mr. Feng's recent work, commemorating the Chinese painting master Qi Baishi:

An Informal Chat On Medal Patterns from Shenyang Mint

By Liu Yi

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_76db61f70100xk5p.html

Commemorative coins are known to have "patterns", and commemorative medals also have their own patterns. In terms of bloodline, coin patterns are kind of official, like commemorative coins designated as the fiat currency of the country. The status of medal patterns is similar to that of commemorative medals. In this post, I will explore medal patterns from Shenyang Mint with fellow medal collectors. Some of the information below was provided by the Shenyang Mint staff, other just hearsay, and so please do not hold me to it. I have collected copper medals for many years, seeing many old medals. Those medals below in pictures have all passed through my hands. I am voicing my opinions only. Don't applaud me if I am right, and don't blame me when I am wrong!

"Medal patterns from machine test runs": Many fellow medal collectors may not know "medal patterns from machine test runs". As a large state-run mint, Shenyang Mint often has to update their equipment. Sometimes, when new equipment is delivered, especially after a new striking machine is installed, some dies of commemorative medals may be used to test the performance of the machine. On most occasions, lunar medal dies are fetched from the die room, and the materials for the machine test run are selected from the materials for coin making, such as nickel stripes, brass stripes or aluminum stripes. Medals produced from this process never had standard names. I just call them "medal patterns from machine test runs" in this post.

 The two Tiger lunar medals in the pictures above are such "medal patterns from machine test runs". Both of them were made from nickel. The big tiger (with characters 猛志常在on the reverse, which means Constant Heroic Aspirations) has a diameter of 30 mm. The small tiger (with the Tower of Six Harmonies on the reverse) has a diameter of 24 mm. Judging from the market availability, the two nickel Year of the Tiger "medal patterns from machine test runs" had a mintage of under 100. I also found on the market a small Year of the Snake commemorative medal made from aluminum, which had the same size as the first issue of the Year of the Snake silver medal. It belongs to this category of "medal patterns from machine test runs". Up till now, only these three types of "medal patterns from machine test runs" have been discovered.

"Medal patterns from trial production": To test new technologies, such as polygon and bi-metal technologies, Shenyang Mint sometimes strikes weird medals, such as a polygon Year of the Dog commemorative medal (available on the web in the past), and the bi-metal medal as shown below, which has the Temple of the Heaven on both sides. I call it "medal from trial production" for now. The number of this medal is smaller than that of the nickel tiger medals.

 

In the thirty some years of medal production by Shenyang Mint, some special medals turned up which can also be categorized as "medal patterns". Although they were not made from some particular material or special technology, these medals are different from those from normal production, and leaked out through special channels. They are extremely rare. As desirability arises from rarity, we can also call them "medal patterns" for now. Take the commemorative medal of the CCTV below for example. Its diameter is larger than the normally produced medals, with no reeding.

It looks like a medal before reeding was cut. I am not sure how it made itself available on the market.

The copper medal above of Yandi and Huangdi is different from the official release, which is gold plated. This copper medal was taken off the production line before it was plated with gold. It is extremely rare. I have seen only two specimens.

In the picture above, the Ma Dingxiang big bronze medal on the right obviously has very weak strike around Xianfeng Yuanbao, and the medal has no series number on the rim. Its thickness is about 2/3 of the officially released medal. It should be one of the few "medal patterns" before massive production. This is the only specimen ever seen.

The picture above shows a Taierzhuang big bronze medal. According to "Chinese Big Copper Medals", the official release is gold-plated. I once saw brass medals on the web, which looked like official releases, too. But the bronze medals were individually packed in plastic capsules, without the outer wooden box. It is extremely rare, and should be patterns from test strikes.

In the picture above the Golden Years medal without a one jiao coin mounted on it was a gift from a friend at Shenyang Mint. It was one of the patterns that skipped the last process, and was stored in the drawer of his desk. It can also be categorized as patterns, although barely.

To sum up, I touched upon medal patterns from machine test runs and test production as well as other types of medal patterns. They all have the following characteristics: 1. They are different from the officially released medals from Shenyang Mint, either in material, or size, or technology; 2. They are extremely rare; 3. None had formal packaging. At the moment, no fakes of such medal patterns have been found yet, and so we can have a peaceful mind for now. The three characteristics above make these medals highly valuable because of their tiny mintage.

After all this talk, some readers may still have an unsolved puzzle in their mind: How did these medals leak out? From what I learned so far, there were these possibilities: many of such "medal patterns" were given by the leaders of Shenyang Mint to friends, on informal occasions, most probably in private. That explains the missing formal packaging of these medals. Some of the patterns were mixed up with official releases and sold at a discount through Shenyang Mint's distribution network. Some were even sold to scrap metal collectors and then made to the collectors' market.

This is as much as I know for now. I discussed the topic with one or two fellow medal collectors before. I am posting my findings to the public now so that fellow medal collectors can join the discussion.