Comprehensive Guide Book to Panda Coins

Exciting news for Panda coin collectors! We finally have a comprehensive English language guide book which details all of the coins in the series.

The just published Gold and Silver Panda Coin Buyer's Guide by Peter Anthony is a comprehensive 208 page reference book that is a must-have for any serious Panda collector. The guide covers every Panda coin issued by the China Mint from 1982 until today. Full color images are provided for nearly every coin, as well as valuable background information and mintage data. We highly recommend this excellent new book.

Of great interest to collectors, Mr. Anthony has published the first estimates of current surviving Panda coin populations. Over the years, many Panda coins have be mishandled, used for jewelry, and melted for scrap. This has resulted in some surprisingly small remaining populations for many coins in the series. This information is sure to change the landscape of the Panda coin market as many common coins are suddenly appear to be a lot less common!

Gold and Silver Panda Coin Buyer's Guide is available now at Rare Panda Coins as well as Amazon.com

2009 Panda Coin Mintage Limits Reached

The word from the coin dealer network is that 2009 mintage limits of the gold and silver pandas coins have been reached. Each year, China Gold Coin Inc (CGCI) designates a limit on how many Panda coins will be produced and sold for that mintage year. Due to the strong demand from the market, as of April 2009 those limits have been reached.

This means that no more 2009 Pandas will be coming into the market from CGCI. Dealer stock is the only remaining source, but as that is consumed, price premiums can be expected to rise.

Published 2009 Mintage Limits
1oz Gold: 160,000
1/2oz Gold: 60,000
1/4oz Gold: 60,000
1/10oz Gold: 100,000
1/20oz Gold: 100,000

1oz Silver: 600,000

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