Owner Comments:
First year of 0.999 1 ounce Mint State issue The Chinese Panda ranks among the oldest of the modern silver bullion series, but it might be worth asking, is it really just another one of the modern bullion series? What is the true beginning of the series?
The coins in the series were not always made of 1 ounce of 0.999 pure silver. 1983 saw the start of the set with a 0.900 fineness coin. This increased to 0.925 in 1984 but fell back to 0.900 in 1985. Up to this point the series had been produced only as a commemorative proof coin with a stunningly low mintage of only 10,000 coins. 1987 saw the release of the first 0.999 1 ounce coin but it was still a limited production proof. The panda is the only modern bullion series I'm aware of to have skipped years in production; there were no 1 oz pandas in 1986 or 1988. It is also the only series to have meaningful changes in the size, weight, and purity of the coins over time.
The first Pandas as we know them today were struck in 1989 as 0.999 1 oz coins. For the first time both uncirculated mint state and proof coins were released. The mint state production of 250,000 is huge relative to the earlier years of the series, but it is still tiny next to the mintage of American Eagles (in their 4th year of mintage at this time).
I don't know why the Chinese government had the series evolve in this direction or what role the rise of competing North American series played in this process (by 1989, Mexico, the United States, and Canada had all started their bullion programs, Australia would soon follow with the Kookaburras in 1990 and the Kangaroos in 1993).
It may be necessary to answer the following: is this really one continuous series that started in 1983? Or is this set the result of combining a few commemorative issues from the early to mid-1980s with a series of bullion coins that didn't really start until the end of the decade? Personally, I find it difficult to group the early 1983-1987 coins with the 1989-date run. The different size, weight, and purity standards and the pauses in production of 1 oz coins make the early coins simply too different for me. As it is, the 1983-1987 coins don’t meet the requirements I set down for the coins in this signature set, so even if I buy them for my Panda collection, they won’t be given slots in this set. For my purposes here, 1989 will be considered the start of the series.
Problems associated with the country of origin have plagued the series. China has long been known as a source of cheap counterfeits of just about everything. Growing global interest in the series as a collectable combined with the relatively low mintages combined to make this one of the only modern bullion series to have collector's values radically higher the bullion value. Many years can easily go for well over $100 and one or two can cost over $1000. These high prices made the coins a logical target for counterfeiting. Around 2005 a wave of cheap counterfeits from China itself hit the global market and a number of buyers were burned in the process. To this day coin dealers will hype the "genuine" status of their inventory and warn the masses to "not be fooled by fake Pandas." These fakes were made with all kinds of cheap metals but the most dangerous would have to be those containing lead.
The series continues to enjoy growing popularity for its wonderful artwork, but it has become the hardest of all the modern bullion to collect. The pandas have a high degree of prestige among modern coins; evidenced by the fact that the #1 ranked Panda set (one-per-date) has also been named a "Best Modern" set in 2 of the last 3 years (2006 & 2008). The pandas have really evolved visually over the years, changing incrementally. They make for a great set to collect and look at.
The 1990 panda commentary presents information about the panda as a species including its habitat, range, and physical characteristics. The 1995 Panda commentary provides information about the Panda in Chinese history, culture, and myth.