Set Description:
Accumulated over decades of searching the globe, this silver medal proof set consists of 105 unique pandas containing 96 ”top pops” & 9 “2nd finest”. With so many of the top pops possessing scarce populations, this has been quite the journey acquiring piece by piece & is truly the highlight of all my collections. Most of the rarities have been acquired directly through personal relationships I've established over my years involved with numismatics & it’s simply amazing to see just how far panda medals have come. I started collecting Chinese medals in the 90’s… back then you saw merely 1 panda medal released each year out of the Munich International Coin Show. When the annual Munich show concluded releasing pandas in 1997, I thought that was the end of panda medals…. and in a lot of ways it was the end… less a few minor releases, it took 15 years before panda medals were released on a wide scaled again through the 2012 Singapore show. Now let’s fast forward to 2016 where the panda medal market absolutely EXPLODED! Just in 2016 alone, there were 26 unique silver panda medals released from China… that's not including China fiat pandas/ world fiat pandas/ world panda medals / all other pandas of different metal contents… in 2016, China alone released 26 unique silver panda medals from different conventions/ shows/ mints... with never-seen-before sizes/ series/ weights/ styles.... with even more to come in 2017. There's so many unique opportunities in collecting panda medals right now. Aside from the array of options, we're seeing innovative designs, with insanely low mintages, flying out of stores as soon as they're released. The antique pandas are a perfect example... I remember reading an email alerting that the Nanjing antique pandas, with total mintage of 30, were released & available for order. Before I could even log in to buy a few, they completely sold out in the matter of hours. I just don't understand how a total mintage of 30, selling for a couple hundred dollars each, could possibly be worth the time it takes designing/ engraving/ minting/ marketing/ shipping etc etc. Maybe it's to gain collectors/ interest in these new sets, but I watched the Nanjing panda prices sky rocket in the matter of weeks from release date. The OMP antique copper/ brass set sold for $600 upon release... less than 3 weeks later, the same store that sold the OMP set for $600 turned around & sold the PF70 set sold for $2500 on ebay (I'm not saying listed at $2500... it sold at $2500)... and I won't even publicly state what I paid for the Pop 1 / PF70 Silver Nanjing Antique ER, but let's just say the phrase "arm & a leg" would be applicable (although so worth it IMO). Rule of thumb is to hold numismatics for 10 years before you can turn profits... some of these panda medals are quadrupling in value in 10 days. Really unbelievable! My guess is these medals will be nearly impossible to locate a few years from now if they’re this difficult to acquire at the time of release. Food for thought… I just bought a beautiful 1984 1oz silver panda medal in PF69 (an amazing example I must say)… included/ unadvertised was a nice surprise of the original box & receipt. I had always wondered what these panda proofs sold for back in the 80’s. This coin costed me $1,900 in PF69 & the original receipt showed a $50 purchase price. This panda medal has a mintage of 1,000 & its increased in value 38X in 30 years (not many investments in the world offers that type of ROI)… that being said, I can’t imagine what these panda medals, with mintages in the DOUBLE digits, will be worth 30 years from now. It’s impossible to truly gage the potential because nobody has seen mintages this low before. Right now, you’re seeing a small window into the future of pandas… this market will only continue to grow! There’s no bullion/ fiat/ medals… there’s absolutely no coins in the world doing what the panda medals are doing right now. Truly an exciting time to collect pandas!
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