Low Mintage Gold Panda Coin Varieties Heat up

The Chinese gold Panda coin market has been heating up over the past several months. Low mintage and low population varieties have disappeared from dealer inventories as prices have soared.

As recently as one year ago, nearly every date and variety of gold panda was readily available on ebay and major dealers. Today, the list of "unobtainable" coins is growing, partially as a result of strong demand from China. Strong Chinese demand for full dates sets (all sizes of the coin for a given date) has put a lot of pressure on the more scarce coins in each set, especially the fractional sizes. All Panda coins with mintage or population of less than 2000 have seen major price increases, and my guess is that anything in the 2000-5000 range is next.

Difficult (and expensive) gold panda coins now include:

• 1995 all types and sizes
• 1998 large date, all sizes
• 1998 small date fractionals (1/2, 1/4, 1/10, 1/20)
• 2000 mirror
• Coin show panda medals with low mintage under 1000
• 1992, 1995, 1996 proofs
• All bimetal pandas
• Most fractional size pandas from the 1990's

Some candidates to soon move into scarcity may be:

• 1991-P Proofs
• 1990-P Proofs
• 1999 large date with serif
• 2002 pandas
• 2003 pandas
• 2004 panda
• 1997 small date
• Other 1990's date types with lowest population
• Panda Coin show medals with mintage over 1000

1982 and 1983 Pandas have remained stable, but the coveted MS69 grade has become very tough to come by for these dates. PCGS and NGC are not kind to the early date pandas, so top grade prices will continue to reflect this. MS68 premiums are strong as a result of very high MS69 prices.

Bimetallic Pandas

There has been much attention lately to very low mintage pandas, with prices moving up rapidly. These would include the 1998 50Y Gold 1/2oz ($2500), the 1995 100Y Gold Proof ($6277), platinum pandas, and the 5oz, 12oz and kilogram Pandas. All of these have mintages less than 2500 peices, but a large and growing collector base whos number well exceed the mintage.

When there are more collectors than coins, prices move up. Typically, as the collector base grows, coins with populations near the supply/demand threshold will suddenly move up.

The bimetallic pandas represent a very attractive and collectible subset of the Panda series with very low mintages. Although already in short supply, prices have not yet reached the levels of the hot coins mentioned above. I believe the bimetallics will eventually meet and exceed these levels.

The bimetallic Pandas have a gold center with a silver outer ring, and are thinner than other pandas, but also wider in diameter, making them appear large for the bullion content. They were issued from 1990 through 1996, often in sets, with values from 10Y to 50

Denomination	Gold	Silver
10Y	1/10oz	1/28oz
25Y	1/4oz	1/8oz
50Y	1/2oz	1/5oz
500Y	5oz	2oz

In 1990 and 1991 bimetallic medals (no face value) were issued along with the coin and included in the mint set.

Official Mintage Limits:

Year	Denom.	Mintage
1990	50Y	2000
1990	1/2oz+1/5oz	2000
1991	25Y	10000
1991	1/4oz+1/8oz	2000
1992	10Y	2000
1993	25Y	2500
1994	10Y	3000
1994	25Y	2500
1995	10Y	2000
1995	25Y	2000
1995	50Y	2000
1995	500Y	199
1996	10Y	8000
1996	25Y	2500
1996	50Y	2500
1996	500Y	199
1997	10Y	2800
1997	25Y	2800
1997	50Y	2800
1997	500Y	199

Actual Mintages

The actual mintages of mid-1990s gold pandas has recently been acknowledged to be much lower than the published maximums. No actual figures have been published for the bimetallic, but given the time period, it seems certainly possible that actuals could be lower.

As a side note, based on apparent availability in the market today, the 1997 set seems to be more scarce despite its slightly higher official mintage figures.

The 10Y, 25Y, and 50Y were issued in 3-coins 1995, 1996, and 1997. The 1996 10Y was also issued separately, and this is reflected in the higher mintage figure.

Several Reference Pictures are shown below.

1995

1997

Rare Silver Proof Pandas on Fire

One of the greatest sleepers in the Panda series appears to be taking off. While most of the silver Pandas issued have had mintages in the 200,000+ range, there are several little known issues with mintages from 8000 to 25000 peices. These are the 1983-1985 BU silver coins and the 1989-1996 Silver Proofs.

Mintages:

• 1983: 10,000
• 1984: 10,000
• 1985: 10,000
  
• 1989-P: 25,000
• 1990-P: 20,000
• 1991-P: 20,000
• 1992-P: 20,000
• 1993-P: 20,000
• 1994-P: 15,000
• 1995: 10,000
• 1996: 8,000
  

The 1983-1985 BU coins continue to increase in price steadily: currently in the $300-$500 Range when you can find them.

Since the BU silver Pandas often have a very proof-like finish, the proof versions have been often overlooked. In fact, the P mintmark may be all that distinguishes them in some years.

The 1995 and 1996 issues, however, have no P mark. The obverse panda design on the proofs is different from the BU coins. I have been amazed at the low prices of these rare coins, until recently. Over the last 8 months the prices have soared!

1995 Obverse:

1996 Obverse:

The 1989-P through 1994-P issues have also started to rise, moving from $30-50 and approaching $75-$100+.

Keep an eye on my Ebay store for rare silver and gold panda coins.

Jay's Rare Panda Coins