Difference between Lunar series I and II?

Cheepo

New Member
I have two questions:

1) what is the difference between the series I and II? I though that Series I goes from 1999 to 2010, and Series II will go from 2011 to 2022. But yesterday I saw two Year of the Ox coins on Apmex with two different designs of the same year (2009). Series I had a limited run and was very expensive. Series II didn't have any information as to the number of coins, and was sold out. Now I can't find the Series I on Apmex anymore, so I might have mis-seen that? Can anybody confirm if Series I and II run consecutively?

2) also, Altima wrote
As for the kilo lunars, apparently they can still be reminted so that's a major reason why people don't want to pay the premiums for it.

do you mean that if (say) the Year of the ox 2009 runs out, they might remint them again in a few years time?? Or do you mean that the year of the Ox will come back every 12 years?

Thanks!
 
- Series 2 started from 2008 (Year of the Mouse), there's an overlapping between series 1 and series 2 however if I'm not mistaken the last 3 Series 1 years (2008, 2009 and 2010) have been minted in advance before the start of series 2 in 2007
- The Series 2 Kilo coins can be reminted anytime during the whole duration of the series, it already happened last year.
 
1) You can refer to the following pages for the mintage of the coins for Series 1 and Series 2

2) They can remint the Kilo lunar coins from now until the series ends.
 
The caveat with the kilo reminting is that ONLY the bullion kilo's can be reminted...the proofs will not. Once the limit is reached on the proofs or the year is up (whichever comes first), that's it for that kilo coin.

So, kilo proofs will be much, much scarcer than the kilo bullion at the end of 2019. You may want to look into getting a proof kilo instead of the bullion kilo if you are interested in the kilo size.

But don't expect to find the early kilo proofs of series 2 (2008 and up) for anything less than mega premiums, especially the rare 2008 Mouse.

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Sorry, but what does 'kilo proof', and 'kilo bullion' mean? And do they relate to Series I and Series II??

I would prefer to buy silver at as close to the spot price as possible. I think numismatics is too complicated for a newbie like me, and i am more likely to lose than to win.
 
There are two different releases on each Lunar series, one is bullion and the other is proof, the proof coins come with a a case, box and certificate of authenticity, their mintage is much lower and they sell for more expensive then the bullion coins.
Google proof coin to understand what's the difference in striking a proof coin compared to a regular bullion coin.
 
Proof is more shinier than the bullion, and mich more expensive. Its a different type of finish.
 
Forgive my ignorance.

1) There is a 2009 year of the ox: http://www.apmex.com/product/43889/2009-year-of-the-ox-1-kilo-silver-coin-series-ii

2) and then there is a different 2009 year of the ox: http://www.apmex.com/product/26717/2009-1-kilo-silver-lunar-year-of-the-ox-series-i with a different design and different year (2007), and higher price. I understand the higher price, with the comments above, but not the different design and different year. Is this coin actually what someone wrote before, issued beforehand (I guess in 2007)

3) would this be the "proof silver" coin of No. 1)? http://www.apmex.com/product/61659/2009-1-kilo-32-15-oz-silver-year-of-the-ox-coin-sii-ms-69-ngc

4) Finally, this is the year of ox sold in Hong Kong, which is the same as No. 1), but the sizes are off, and the denomination is $10 instead of $30? Are these typo mistakes, or what happened? http://lpm.hk/eng.buy_silver_detail.ews?buy_silver.ewdid=1820
 
1- is S2 2009 Ox and 2- is S1 2009 Ox but minted in 2007 as explained above

Those are bullion, the proof coins have a mirror finish like this one :

Australia_2009_YearOx_Kilo_Silver_Proof.jpg
 
Cheepo

Here's The Perth Mint's official 2014 pdf brochure for their silver bullion coins.
http://www.perthmintbullion.com/bullion-brochure/silver-bullion-brochure-2014.pdf

On page 5 of 8 there's information regarding the Kilo coins as mentioned by the posters above. :)





Side note

You are probably aware now that The Perth Mint can close-off a series early as they did with the series 1 lunar coins.

If you check the series 2 coins, you'll notice that Perth deleted the 1/2Kilo lunar coins from their bullion program and they also included privy mark coins to their one ounce range of coins for not only the lunar but also the Kookaburra and Koala coins.

So although Perth publishes certain details in their pdf documents they also react to "the market" to sell more or less Ag metal and of course they could wind up the series early if they wanted to.

Perth can also "declare" a particular coin if they decide it is in their interest or perhaps for other reasons.

There's some folk who are putting off buying the kilo lunar coins because they believe the kilo coins will again be restruck in the future (They have already as has been indicated in the posts above) but there's a few things to consider imo.

Price

*No one has a crystal ball, "if " spot of Ag heads North and breaks its high set in April 2011 those Kilo lunars could be very expensive "if" there are strong prices into the future.

*Another consideration would be a fall in the USD or for Aussie folk a fall in the AUD (Some are predicting the AUD to have a significant drop if China's economy goes turtle).
A drop of the AUD and a strong spot price would make buying silver very expensive for Aussie folk.


Design Change

*What would happen to the design of the obverse if Queen Elizabeth II should pass before the completion of the series?
Perhaps we would see an obverse with "King Charles"???


Anyway...just thought I'd add my two bobs worth. :)

DYODD.

Cheers

H
 
If you want silver as close to spot as possible, then eliminate the word proof from your vocabulary.
 
Thank you all. From this information (I learned a lot. Thank you) it seems that the proof coins are the ones with the upward, collectors' worth potential, but the bullion coins are the ones with the closest price to spot (close to the bars), but with little upward potential as time goes by. In spite of this, the 2009 ox retails at US$1,023.98, while the 2014 horse retails at US$804.44. A price increase of 25% in 5 years is not too bad.

So I think I will stick with the bullion coins. It's boring to have 20 exact looking bars, while it's rather cool to have a series of 20 coins. :)
 
Seems like people got wise to the Lunar in the past few years. I don't see the snake or current horse getting into the premiums that anything pre-snake has.
 
Andy28 said:
Seems like people got wise to the Lunar in the past few years. I don't see the snake or current horse getting into the premiums that anything pre-snake has.
people here got too many horses ...
take a look at the dealers in US or Germany and notice the pricing
in Apmex horses go for $55 USD/ea

any semi-numiz are good after time passes
 
Cheepo said:
Thank you all. From this information (I learned a lot. Thank you) it seems that the proof coins are the ones with the upward, collectors' worth potential, but the bullion coins are the ones with the closest price to spot (close to the bars), but with little upward potential as time goes by. In spite of this, the 2009 ox retails at US$1,023.98, while the 2014 horse retails at US$804.44. A price increase of 25% in 5 years is not too bad.

So I think I will stick with the bullion coins. It's boring to have 20 exact looking bars, while it's rather cool to have a series of 20 coins. :)


I diversify....a tiny bit in blobs (non-denominational common bullion bars), a tiny bit in bullion coins and rounds (rounds are just like coins except they are non-denominational), and a tiny bit in modern semi-numismatic coins (usually, but not always proof finish, low mintage coins), and even a little in medals



..
 
Series 1 - gold started in 1996 with the rat/mouse.
Series 1 - silver started in 1999 with the rabbit.
To catch up silver with gold, in 2007 the PM minted Series 1 rats/mice, oxen & tigers in small quantities.

Series 2 - both gold and silver started in 2008 with the rat/mouse.
 
Andy28 said:
Seems like people got wise to the Lunar in the past few years. I don't see the snake or current horse getting into the premiums that anything pre-snake has.



I think often the first coins of any series will tend to get higher premiums because of the nature of collecting sets and collecting in general. I used to collect comic books and collector cards and the premier issue of any series had almost universally a higher premium because of the nature of collecting.

Because I believe it's really not all that much different with coin collecting, for this reason, I believe the 2008 S2 Mouse could develop a really nice premium the closer we get to 2019 (last year of S2 series). At the moment, the premiums on the 1 oz bullion S2 Mouse are very, very reasonable. Not so much for the scarcer size bullion Mouse though (like 2 and 5 oz size) and of course all the size variation of the proof Mouse already have a substantial and growing with every year premium.

I started stacking only in the late Fall of 2012....so i missed the boat on the Mouse and everything up until the ugly dragon.




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