Gold Coins are issued from the the People’s Republic of China official mint. They have two general coin types: the Chinese Panda and the Chinese Unicorn. The former is the more popular among the two and is the one which is usually sold or bought in the market. The Chinese Unicorn was issued on 1986 and has a limited mintage hence making it quite unpopular with gold coin collectors. It features the Chinese unicorn in its obverse and the unicorn of the West on its reverse. The Chinese unicorn is also made from high quality gold – 24 karat – and is being sold at a weight of a twentieth part of an ounce. The coin has a face value of five Yuan and can be bought in the United States in almost mint condition.
The Chinese Panda is the most popular Chinese gold coin. They were first issued by the Chinese mint in 1982 and was always issued with a different figure of a panda each year. The trend was stopped however during 2001 and so both of those that were issued from 2001 and in 2002 contained the same Pandas. The variety of Pandas makes it a very collectible item and also its gold content. Proof types of this coin were only issued from 1986 to 1995 which makes them a rare commodity to come by.
There is also another Chinese gold coin which is quite popular among collectors but it does not really look like a coin at all. It is the China Year of the Monkey coin which is molded like a fan. It weighs for one-half of an ounce and is also available in the United States. This coin features the Chinese monkey and also the year and place of mintage.
Aside from them, the Chinese government also issued several other gold coins each depicting a different object and also a specific important event in history. In 1979, the Chinese Mint struck 13,000 pieces of a commemorative coin for the first anniversary of the International Children’s Year. It had a face value of 450 Yuan and is made from a lower karat of gold about 90%. The coin depicted two small children planting a tree. In 1993, the Peacock gold coin was issued with a fineness of 99.9% pure gold and with a face value of 100 Yuan. There is also the Endangered Wildlife gold coin which was released in 1994 that depicts the Chinese panda as an endangered animal. The coin has a 91.6% fineness and is made of eight grams of gold. In 1995, China issued the Dinosaur commemorative coin weighing one-half of an ounce. It is made from 24 karat gold and features the Wooden Pagoda in Shanxi in its obverse. The reverse of the coin carries the image of a dinosaur. The coin carried a face value of fifty Yuan and only two thousand pieces were struck for this issue.
The last type of Chinese gold coin is the Guilin Scenery commemorative gold coin. It is rectangular in shape in contrast with the traditional type of coin and it showcases several famous landmarks of China such as the Flowery Bridge and the Elephant Trunk Hill in its obverse. It is also made from 24 karat gold and weighs one-half of an ounce.