Bobbie said:
I repeat what was stated previously. There is no forked series. The real deal is the one that Andy & Bob currently sponsor. If more proof is needed look at the labels on the graded medals. Also I don't think anyone is buying these medals because of the artist. I don't think anyone will know who the true artist is on these medals. The mint can say whoever they want to say is the artist. Maybe they have an up and coming artist they want to promote. It would be easy to just put anyone's name on the Coa. However, the artist is only one piece of the puzzle. Execution of the design is equally important. You could take a famous artist design like Leonardo De Vinci and do a coin from his artwork. If the execution of this coin is no good, finished coin will still stink. The people I think that are buying these lunar pandas are buying because of the finished product. They could care less who the artist is. In my opinion Andy & Bob go out of their way to make sure all the components of the finished medal are top notch. This is evidenced by the high quality of the 3rd medal in this series.
What are the members thoughts on thisWhats more importantArtist or final product.
Bobbie
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Bobbie - we haven't met - i think. And yet you are making accusations.
This is what i posted a few days ago - perhaps you didn't read it?
"Two beautiful low mintage coins from the Shenyang mint. We are blessed this christmas indeed. Actually I will be picking up all of them and I think the alternative design (whichever is the alternate) adds considerable collector interest and intrigue to what is an excellent series. Future collectors will be trying piece together what artist did what coin? Which was Lucky's and which was Andy's. All i can see is that the series is excellent and both rooster designs are excellent too."
Badon and I are different people and we have different opinions.
I have invested my hard earned money in Panda Lunar 2015, 2016 and in 2017 - Both Designs.
Frankly I have no care about the designer as the name and history of a designer is not as important to me as whether I think the work and the final product is good. Coins and medals seem to be as much a part of the execution as the design in any case. There has been talk of a fork and a fork implies that one starts with something and then this spawns two different directions. Perhaps there has been a fork? if you consider that the 2015 Panda Lunar (sponsored by Andy and Barsanault) and featuring a folk design and was sold by most western oriented china medal dealers, continued on to a 2016 that had a very different look and feel (classical?) to the previous year. 2017 could therefore have reverted to folk or continued as classical and in 2016 the distribution for these medals changed and the 2016 design became an Andy and Barsanault exclusive and Lucky was not able to continue selling this line. In 2017 Andy and Barsanault continued the exclusive arrangement and the classical design and Lucky was looking for a way of continuing the series so decided to move forward with the folk theme started in 2015 with the sheep/goat.
So we have "classic" for 2016/2017 and folk for 2015/2017. Thus two distinct series have emerged both made by the Shenyang Mint, both with the same mintage and options and both with lovely designs in different styles. I am happy to keep up with both parts and I dont care if its a fork or an alternative it means nothing much in terms of my collecting or actions.
It would not surprise me if Andy and Barsanault continued with the production of beautiful and well executed classic designs and if Lucky continued with the folk theme.
Lucky has a penchant for backfilling (Nanjing Panda 2015) and so I would not be surprised at all to see a retro 2016 folk inspired monkey design.
I don't expect to see a backfilled retro classic design for 2015 from Andy and Barsanault but anything is possible.
So - my conclusion is as it was a couple of days ago.
"Two beautiful low mintage coins from the Shenyang mint. We are blessed this christmas indeed. Actually I will be picking up all of them and I think the alternative design (whichever is the alternate) adds considerable collector interest and intrigue to what is an excellent series. Future collectors will be trying piece together what artist did what coin? Which was Lucky's and which was Andy's. All i can see is that the series is excellent and both rooster designs are excellent too."
We are lucky to have Andy and Barsanault who both do great work in bringing us great products which take an unbelievable amount of time and effort and we are lucky we have great dealers like Lucky too who innovate and bring us alternatives.