Video is of the 1 oz Panda (mintage of 5000). These are pretty inexpensive for a PF70 ($99). Modern Coin Mart and Govtmint.com have them. Only available to the U.S., market (to my knowledge). There is also a 2 oz and 10 oz silver, and 1 oz gold. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4gv5Q9T6Us[/youtube]
Easy there fella. Lol. These are not Lunar Pandas, with good relief. ). These are your standard non-fiat coins (or what others deem medals), and they have a normal relief. Although, my understanding is that the 2 oz and 10 oz have a concave look to it. Apparently a first. I don't know, I didn't get one.
I like it, looks great! Checked the 2oz on sale and that one is sold as bowl shape and high relief in frosted areas, but hard to tell from pictures. Rather thick, a piedefort? 2000 minted, and that's only 4 times less rare than the regular Lunar Panda. Would not mind owning one!
I've heard over 1000 in 2 oz graded PF70. Wowza. Is that an MCM/Govtmint special favor thing or is the strike that good for a 1000 pieces out of 2000? ))
There seems to have been a big interest in the moon panda in the UK. There is a group buy being organised with govmint by the silverforum members and the feedback has been positive. I bought 1 PF70 and 4 ungraded and will grade the 2 best of the ungraded ones just for fun. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHKScEEqwXQ[/youtube] I really like these medals but cant help thinking: 1. This makes the Nanjing Pandas an even better buy and 5,000 mintage for the silver 1oz (2000 for the 2oz) compared to 199 for the silver 2oz. 2. Just imagine if MCM or Govmint or EMK etc marketed Nanjing Pandas?
I'm sure the mintage is too low for them to bother. Or the profit margin need to be increased a lot! Which in turn would make it just a... panda medal, and probably less interest from those who hunt it today. Guess you can't have both ways... That's why a 5000 mintage can be just as good a purchase as a 100 mintage, and that's why I'm not blinded by mintages. The marketing behind make wonders. It's more fun though to have something truly rare.
I may be wrong but it has been difficult for these 1000+ mintage Panda medals to sell out. They tend to stagnate in the marketplace thereby holding down the appreciation of the medal. I hope they have an aggressive marketing program that will get these medals off the primary market in 6-9 months or less.
I agree that one cant have it both ways. Large mintage and no marketing machine = stagnation and depressed prices. Small mintage and things are sold out serving only a small number of collectors. I would be happy for another 2 years of low mintage interesting medals/coins and then to see the machine take over for a year first with 1000 mintage then 5000. Then the glory years would make my few medals highly desirable - not that they are not highly desirable right now its just that the mass market is not being educated. On the other hand, I bought a Britannia gold set this year. The set contained 1/10th and 1/2oz proofs that have an edition of 70 and a mintage of 295. Major mint with good marketing program compared to say Nanjing Mint - also sell out quick - which was the better buy? time will tell. Lucky's Nanjing Panda auction was up to almost $200 in PF70 with 199 mintage and open price of $50. What would an Antique Brass 70 be worth? $1500?
