China Gold Panda

The China Gold Panda was first minted as a bullion coin in 1982. It belongs to a gold bullion series released by the People’s Republic of China. The coins released in 1982 come in one-tenth, quarter, half, and one oz while a twentieth oz was issued in 1983. Additional bigger panda coins weighing 12 and 5 oz were also released in different years later on.

The design of the China Gold Panda coins used to change with every annual issue. However, a design freeze was proclaimed in 2001, which rendered the design of the coins released in 2002 similar to that released in 2001. This would later be reinstated after collectors complained against the freeze policy. In general, the obverse features the Temple of Heaven below the text, “Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo” and the issuance year at the bottom. Commemorative issues also feature the theme at the bottom. The reverse contains panda portraits in the middle with the face value and gold content inscribed right above and below the pandas respectively.

The 1982-2000 releases of 100-, 50-, 25-, 10-, and 5-yuan denominations have similar nominal gold and gross weights, diameters and thicknesses as the 2001-2015 releases of 500-, 200-, 100-, 50-, and 20-yuan denominations respectively. Their nominal gold weights are 1, ½, ¼, 1/10, 1/20 t/oz respectively. Their respective total weights are 31.103g, 15.5515g, 7.7758g, 3.1103g, and 1.5552g respectively. The diameters are 32.05mm, 27.00mm, 21.95mm, 17.95mm, and 13.92mm respectively. Their respective thicknesses are 2.70mm, 1.85mm, 1.53mm, 1.05mm, and 0.83mm respectively.

From 2016, the weights and diameters of the coins were revised while their thicknesses were retained. The weights of the 500-, 200-, 100-, 50-, and 20-yuan became 30g, 15g, 8g, 3g, 1g while the diameters are now 32mm, 27mm, 22mm, 18mm, and 10mm respectively. Throughout their mintage, the coins retained 99.9 percent gold fineness. The coins were minted by different mints including Shenzhen, Beijing, Shenyang, and Shanghai. However, Panda America and the China Gold Coin Corporation (CGCC) are the official distributors in the US and China respectively. No sales tax or VAT is charged for trading in the China Gold Panda.