We lost all our money, too! But we had way more fun doing it... \ \ (No, mmissing... I don't actually have a million in fun-money to burn, LOL -- hence, the winky-face )
All below are online items which is fully minted. After losing the in the online gamble tent. The owner withdraw from secure store and sell cheaply to physical market due to the unwanted and Low demand on it. They mint it by following the design of some famous Low mintage medal and change the size, quality and mintage in order to list online for gambling. Those sell usd25 in china but some sell high price in eBay. It is good to buy it from art perspective but not except the quality as good as those original.
@Andy, can you please provide me with some additional info about tiger medal? If I'm not wrong is part of the series that you and barsenault posted some pictures in the past? http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-62267-chinese-medals-silver-isn-t-the-only-composition-page-9.html Edit: now I noticed that it doesn't have a year on it so it's probably different. I would like to find the tiger from this series: https://world.taobao.com/item/543678644910.htm?spm=a312a.7728556.2015080705.16.eLEzNR&id=543678644910&scm=1007.12006.46753.i524389210246&pvid=e3cfa94a-5bed-43d0-8151-ba3e72b28810 @Gatito Bandito: just sponsor the 2nd in 4 Beauties (Xi-Shi) series!
I would like to find the tiger from this series: https://world.taobao.com/item/543678644910.htm?spm=a312a.7728556.2015080705.16.eLEzNR&id=543678644910&scm=1007.12006.46753.i524389210246&pvid=e3cfa94a-5bed-43d0-8151-ba3e72b28810 Is that the 80mm Shanghai Series? Didn't that series only start in 2012? - Google translates to: Shanghai Mint Zhu Xihua high relief's first Lunar New Year Series - Year of the Dragon large bronze (but seller or translation could be wrong)
Check the 1st link in Stark's post right before yours. Apparently there's a 2011 Rabbit in this series. Not sure if that's the first one, or if there's a Tiger (or earlier!) out there. Probably lunar overload with this stuff at this point, but this is a pretty nice lunar series. My only issue with these is the tendency for Shanghai to go a little too crazy on the antiquing oxidizer on these big brass. Other than that, I'd probably buy 'em all (if only I had the funds). So, I'll probably be selective. Gotta admit, the Rooster is pretty nice. So far(?) I've only got the Sheep, which I think is pretty awesome...
Can be done but the pricing is an issue. There has silver version which price is always at high end side
Ooops. Helps if I don't accidental delete the end quote tag in my last post. Anyway...I did see the Rabbit from the first link. Is that from the same series though because it's only high relief on one side. Posssibly due to a change of designer/style? @andrewlee10 Maybe you could shed some light on this. When did the series start? If it predates the Dragon, are the two styles still considered the same series or would it be the end of one and the start of another.
I was aware about the others before, but I never got (I asked also in the past) any clear reply about the tiger. It seems it started with wabbit. I know I probably said this too often, but I think this is one of the best lunar series out there. It's one of the few, if not the only one, that I would have each of the medal. I agree with you about overload with lunars. Wow, so each of these medals is also available in silver? Damn, rabbit should look super fine. Hopefully also tiger when it's released. Sorry guys for hijacking the thread.
If I return back to the topic... based on my experience there are not many medals that were "fully" minted, or I'm just collecting/interested in medals that are not so popular (or not minted). What do you think? I guess when producers of Chinese medals will invest more into "marketing" demand will be even higher. Quite many stuff I found out accidentally, but I guess sponsors are at least putting some "ads" on some Chinese forums or something?
If it started with the rabbit, then the 2 best years are still to come; Rat and Tiger. Stark, as for your question regarding popular medals, I think the main benefit of buying a medal that is not popular (or not popular yet) is that the price is usually lower simply because of supply-demand dynamics. For me, I actually don't care at all that a medal or collector coin is popular.....by far and away the most important criteria for me is aesthetic appeal. This is not necessarily the same approach I use when buying bullion silver coins because I don't buy them generally for the same reason I do medals. The medal design must be aesthetically appealing to me personally before I even consider buying it. I will not buy a medal that is not appealing to me. At the same time and for a different reason, I also don't buy crappy looking medals because I don't want to support or encourage poor craftsmanship and therefore I'm not going to reward a mint with my hard earned money if they are going to pump out a crappy product no matter how "popular" it is among the masses....I just won't do it. I'm sure I'm not the only person who collects medals who feels the same way about the main criteria being aesthetic appeal. .
The medal collectors is smaller than coin collectors base. china mint Advertisement and marketing is always lesser than western mints. We are few series sponsor which we would not like to sell to big dealers even they approach us. There is always a reason which is trade secret. I will not disclose it. I collect information informally and try to disclose information too. Many forum owners and other media channels twister, facebook, utube and so on who always claim they not related to XX dealers and no financially gain and benefits on it. Filter the information and think twice.
Rat (mouse) is very cool as well. I think I would prefer rabbits though, as my grandparents had them when I was a kid (long long time ago ). I meant more that I found it "fascinating" that most of the medals I encountered are not fully minted. A lot of them never reached planned mintage. Andy answered this very well I think (below). Coin collector market is bigger than market for medals. I don't recall a coin that is not fully minted. Medal might become "hot" few years later, so it can happen that mint will produce additional pieces, if they still have all the dies and stuff. Most if not all of the stuff I buy I buy because of the same reasons as you. If I don't like it, I won't buy it. It's true that taste can change a little bit. Some coins I bought in the past I don't like now so much any more. I guess nobody wants to take risk and mint just some percentage of the planned mintage number. If medals are selling well they mint additional. Considering World Heritage "popularity" I expected there would be also silver version, but it's not.
Many coins are never fully minted. That's why there are "maximum" or "proposed" (or "mintage limit" in the case of the US Mint) mintage vs "actual" or "declared" mintage.....these are 2 very different things and should not be confused. Many coins from the U.S. and Australia never reach their max or proposed mintage when the pre-determined cut-off date for sales is reached and then the dies are determined to be invalid or are defaced or destroyed. Case in point: Australia 2008 Lunar Series 2 Mouse Proof Kilo silver coin Max mintage: 500 Declared (final) Mintage: 171 This means that there will never be more than 171 of those coins ever made. My guess is that the dies were destroyed. .
Ah yes, damn, also many if not all Libertads. Well kilo and gold at least, 5oz and 2oz as well. You see, I'm now so focused on Chinese stuff I completely forgot about "the other world". :O
That this is true about many coins doesn't take away anything from the beauty and potential blossoming value of many Chinese medals. .
Sweet pick-ups, bro! Stackin' dat brass like a boss!! (Isn't that how they roll over there in YouTube land? :lol: ) In all seriousness, nice vid showcasing these yummy medals, mate. Congrats on the collection so far. Must be impressive in-hand... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ09t_BX9-c [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ09t_BX9-c[/youtube]
That is always a minimum actual mintage that a sponsor must Mint. Generally Shenyang and Nanjing mint will Cold Storage the die after one to two years after minting. It is not likely for them to mint the valence after the 3rd year of quantity of minting is very small except you pay double or triple for it. This is different case of private mint who they willing to mint even after a Long time if it is profitable. I suspect silver Xi Shi holding a pearl is typical example. Out of sudden around 30 pcs silver exist in market. Personally I bought around 10 pcs and left 5 now. This is one of the differences between official and private mint.