Today's coin reveal post features the 1oz .999 Silver 2016 Chinese Panda Coin.

The Chinese Silver Panda was first minted by the People’s Republic of China in 1983. The coins minted in 1983, 1984 and 1985, only weighed 27g and had a silver purity of .900 fine silver. The coin was not minted in 1986. When the coins were reissued in 1987, the weight of the coin changed to 1 troy ounce and the silver purity was increased to .925 sterling silver.

In 2016, the People's Republic of China decided to shift the Chinese Silver Panda coin away from the more traditional weight measurement of troy ounces and began minting the coins in grams using the metric system of weight measurement. The Chinese Silver Panda coins that used to weigh 1 troy ounce prior to 2016, now weigh 30g, which is actually 1.1g lighter than previous versions of the coin.

1. Coin Story

The Chinese Silver Pandas are the flagship silver bullion coin series minted by the People’s Republic of China. The 30g Silver Panda is legal tender in China with a face value of 10 Yuan.

The Chinese Silver Panda is actually one of the world's most popular bullion silver coins to be issued each year. The coin design is always highly anticipated by silver collectors around the world who wait with eager anticipation to see the new cute panda design that will appear on the obverse side of the coin each year.

Popular Silver Bullion Coins:

There is a long list of popular silver bullion coins that are issued by mints around the world each year. It is actually a hotly contested debate as to which coin is the most popular and the best to invest in. I will write a future post dedicated to this topic, but for now I will provide you with a list of some of the more popular and well-known silver bullion coins, in no particular order:

• American Silver Eagle
• Canadian Maple Leaf
• Chinese Silver Panda
• Austrian Philharmonic
• British Britannia
• Australian Kangaroo
• Mexican Libertad
• South African Krugerrand

Leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts on which silver bullion coin is your most popular and best to invest in. Better still, compile your own ordered list of popular silver bullion coins. It will be very interesting to see what everyone comes up with. 📝

2. Coin Packaging

These coins are packaged in individual sealed plastic capsules. When purchasing multiple coins they could be bought in sheets of 15 coins per sheet. If you wanted to purchase in bulk, the most effective way was to buy a monster box, that consisted of 450 coins.

3. Coin Details

a. Mintage

There were 8,000,000 coins minted in 2016. Each of the coins were issued as Chinese legal tender under the authority of the People's Bank of China with the denomination of 10 Yuan.

b. Purity

The purity of the coin is 30g of .999 fine silver.

c. Details

Mint/Brand:	People’s Republic of China
Silver Content:	30 Grams
Weight:	0.9645 Troy Ounces
Purity:	.999 Fine Silver
Denomination:	10 Yuan (Chinese)
Year of Issue:	2016
Edge:	Milled
Mintage:	8,000,000

4. Coin Design

a. Reverse Design

The reverse of the coin depicts an adult Chinese panda resting on the branch of a tree. The background shows a bamboo forest which is the typical habitat of the panda.

The design includes an inscription for the coin weight '30g', the coin purity 'Ag 999' and the denomination of '10 Yuan'.

a. Obverse Design

The obverse of the coin displays the Hall of Prayer for Abundant Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven which is a Chinese Taoist temple. The design also includes the inscriptions 'People's Republic of China' in Chinese writing and the year the coin was issued '2016'.

Post authored by @strenue