yea your right that is odd ... Whats odd too is this set ... I mean 5 gold pandas & a multicolored silver ram??? hmmmmm kinda strange?
The back of the coins says . The other side is , which is inside the Summer Palace in Beijing... been there before myself but completely forgot. 2nd Article's in Chinese but it's the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Fo Xiang Ge) as described in the first link.
I cheated by being multilingual Anyway, still no idea what the coin is! Edit: I plugged " " + .999 Ag/Silver (in English & Chinese) into Google and Baidu, both returned nothing useful regarding the coin.
Wow! I am impressed by the research skills in this group! So the coin is really a 2003 Coloured solid 999 Silver Proof Lunar Ram/Sheep. Right? I am reading on the page that mmm....shiney! provided that the denominations are from 500 yuan down to 20 yuan, but I guess that must be for the gold pandas in the set. I see nothing on the silver coin saying it's 10 yuan or something. So am I right in thinking this coin was only available in this 2000 mintage set? Does that make it a coin that is too rare?
Is it really that coin though? Looks like it but can't tell for certain without seeing the back of the coin in that set
Does the packaging say Berlin mint? If so, that would explain why the coin is not in the Chinese book.
Haha, I was thinking the same thing. That's why I decided to purchase it "blind" or "half-blind" as might be the case here. Then I can submit it as my first coin for grading if I decide to follow that route. I will try to take some better photos of it also, even though that's not the main obstacle for the identification here.
Hi, Tamo42! Thanks, I would be perfectly happy if it turns out to be a normal colored lunar ram. That would mean I have my first lunar on the way. But shouldn't it be featured in comeaux's book then? I have tried to find photos of the lunar coins online, but I am not too successful. Is there a page that show all the Chinese lunars that are mentioned in the pricepedia, from 1981 to 2011? In the pricepedia, it says that in addition to the fan and flower, there are two 2003 1oz silver lunar goats. The proof, described as "Color. Plentiful", mintage 100 000; and the BU, described as "Round. Scarce.", mintage 50 000. I don't know if "Round" refers to the shape or if it is round as opposed to coin, but since both are listed with denomination 10, I guess both are coins. If so, shouldn't is say 10 yuan somewhere on it?
A book with pictures of everything... wouldn't that be nice The "Round. Scarce." means the shape is round (and not colored) as opposed to the colored (also round) proof. I'll see if I can dig up some old eBay auctions with colored lunars...
Here's the colored 2000 dragon: http://www.ebay.com/itm/380344464758 and the colored 2011 rabbit: http://www.ebay.com/itm/270810270626 and the 2001 snake: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130583909951 So imho, the ram you posted seems like a decent fit.
Thanks, tamo42, I see what you mean, very colorful coins. I really love that 2001 snake!! Still, the coins you link to clearly show they are 10 yuan, while bambi here seems to have no denomination. Wouldn't the normal ram have 10 yuan printed on it?
Ooh, good point. I totally overlooked that. Not part of the colored proof lunar series then. It still might be an officially produced medal though. The Chinese mints have produced huge numbers of medals over the years. Some are considered "official," some are not.
