Owner Comments:
Pop 47/ 2 Finer/ Mintage 1K
Quadruple threat panda!
Cameo - Out of all the 1984 1oz medals I've seen over my years, this is the brightest cameo I've come across. I can only compare it to the nicest 89 New York medals I've seen... and even finding the super starch white New Yorks are few & far between. Nevertheless, this is the first 84 I've seen super starch white.
Luster - Every so often you'll find a silver panda where the luster in the cameo just rolls off the devices (almost like waves when you tilt).... this medal possesses just that & is the first 1984 I've found with superior luster.
Fields- This has got to be one of the first medals struck from this die. Either that or this is the first struck after a heavy die polish. Looking straight at the medal, you'll only see haze free/ jet black mirrored fields... but when you tilt the medal, the light catches these heavy die lines... and not in an unattractive way as some are... it's almost diamond-like how the light reflection jumps from line to line. It appears as if the coin was intentionally struck this way as part of the design because 100% of the obverse/ reverse fields posses these symmetrical die lines. Very cool & again the first 84 I've found like this.
Surfaces - This medal is notorious for forehead rub & deterioration speckles. Even PF69s are notorious for being covered in deterioration speckles. As for rub, this medal hasn't even had the slightest brush from the OMP. As for deterioration speckles (this is my assumption of what these are because it's inconsistent from piece to piece, so it can't be from the die), a lot of times these deterioration speckles are most prominent in the panda head, the sail boat & the bordering bevel between the mirrored fields & the diamond shaped/ granule-like panda background. There isn't 1 deterioration speckle on this medal. In my personal opinion, the only imperfection which held this panda back from a PF70 is the tiniest little ding in the bevel border (to the side of the panda's right ear).
This 1984 panda medal is a beauty & deserves a star!