http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=4528&2015-Chinese-Panda-Coins "For the first time, 2015 Panda coin designs carry a denomination but no weight or purity markings. A 10 Yuan Silver Panda still contains one troy ounce of .999 fine silver, but this is not marked anywhere on the coin. A 500 Yuan gold Panda contains one troy ounce of .999 fine gold, but it doesn't provide that information anywhere in its design. This change brings Panda coins more in line with traditional coinage rather than coins struck for the bullion market. It is an interesting development for collectors, not to mention investors. Next year, the Mint plans to change the weights of the coins too. This will make 2015 Panda coins a distinct one-year class."
From what I have read, they plan to go to the metric weight of grams/kilograms instead of the troy ounces. Can't wait to see what gram weights they decide to switch to. FWIW, my ongoing 1 troy ounce gold bullion Panda collection from 1982 may have just completed with the 2015 issue.
Looking at it from another point of view: a good entry point for new comers to the China Panda coins. Fresh starting point with not having to chase old issues.
Some day I hope you get around to taking pics of the collection and treating us MCC lovers to the pics here in this thread. .
Everything is planned to be based on 30 grams. So a 500Y gold Panda will weigh 30 grams, a 200Y will weigh 15 grams, etc. Some medals have already been minted in the 30 and 15 gram weights. Of course, nothing is definite until the 2016 coins are released. Best wishes, Peter Anthony China Pricepedia www.pandacollector.com
Good to have an inkling as to the possible direction of the China Panda gold coins after 2015. I, for one, will be glad if they actually go with the above because I can definitively mark my ongoing 1 TrOz gold bullion China Panda as complete. A 34 year run from 1982 - 2015 is a nice sized collection. And I can start a new one from 2016 onwards.
If its going weigh less, then we should expect to pay less as well since its no longer one troy ounce. So far out of all the coins that i have access to, the pandas are my favourite in both ag and au. However, i just cant get my self to buy one since they removed its composition. Its to bad because i really like the 2015 design.
I expect the same as you with regards to pricing on less than a troz gold in grams. Back in 2002, I refused to get the China Panda gold because they were the same design as 2001 and the China Mint was planning to stick with that design for all years going forward. They reversed and went back to yearly changing designs in 2003, so I got the 2002 in 2003 to keep my ongoing collection complete. For 2015, I just got the coin since the official weight and purity issued by the China Mint for the 500Yuan is 1 troz 999 gold which fits my collection criteria and keeps it current.
Because there is no weight and purity markings on the coin it will be more difficult to sell to someone who has no knowledge about panda coins--this issue looks like more likely like medal than bullion coin. It would be much easier to produce more fake ones.
I highly doubt that anyone who is interested in buying Pandas will not be able to, in about 5 seconds, learn what the weight of a 2015 Panda is. Also, it seems a silly contention to me to posit that a Panda would be much more easily faked if it had no date. I mean, really? Why? .
My way to pandas was via bullion. I chose bullion because metal, purity and weight was on the coin. Now they have removed the reason I chose pandas, so now I will concentrate on any other MCCs. Saying above I still collect pre 2015 pandas
Someone not familiar to pandas is not who we would be selling to anyway. Someone not familiar would likely not be comfortable with the premium that pandas carry
