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First Year of the Unicorn Series - A brief explanation of the Unicorn in eastern myth:
The word Unicorn comes from the Latin words “unus” meaning one and “cornu” meaning horn. It is a legendary creature that has been referenced throughout history and all over the world in folktales, songs, poems ancient bestiaries and epic tales. The modern image of a unicorn is generally a white horse with a single ivory horn at its forehead. In Chinese mythology however the unicorn had the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, the hooves of a horse and a single short horn in the middle of the forehead. The hair on its back was the 5 sacred Chinese colors: red, yellow, blue, white, and black. By some accounts, it had green scales like a dragon. In an interesting contradiction, this coin has the modern, western image of the unicorn on one side, and a depiction of an eastern unicorn on the other side (though it looks a lot like a dragon to me). The western image is likely supposed to give the coin greater appeal in global markets that recognize a Unicorn as a white mare. It's the other side however, that would be the most recognized and appreciated in the coin's country of origin. This makes the coin almost "double headed" and demonstrates the great variation in the ways that the unicorn has been depicted over time.
In the Chinese mythology, the unicorn is known as Kilin, which is a combination of the names for the male and female unicorn, ki and lin respectively. The unicorn was one of the four superior (prophetic) animals of good omen (the other 3 were the phoenix, dragon, and tortoise). Each of these animals was associated with one of the four elements and played an important role in early Chinese creation myth. The Unicorn was the last of these animals and according to some sources it was the most important of them, though no reason is given for why.
Unicorns would only come to humans on very important missions and their appearance was interpreted as a sign of good times. The fact that one has not been seen in about 2500 years is seen as a sign that these are very bad times. Unicorns will only appear again when the time is right and goodness reigns over the world. They were said to have the ability to foretell the future, including the birth of great men, and represented the basic elements of life. It is said that before his birth, a unicorn appeared to Confucius’ mother, gave her a piece of jade (a symbol of wisdom), and laid its head in her lap, predicting his birth and his great wisdom. Supposedly, in his old age Confucius saw the unicorn himself and knew it meant his death was near. In other stories, unicorns appeared before Chinese emperors, gave men the secret to written language, helped shape the world, and performed many other great tasks. Their lifespan is generally thought to have been about 1,000 years.
In Japan, the unicorn was called “Kirin,” had the body of a bull and was a fearsome beast. It could detect guilt, was called upon by judges to settle legal disputes and supposedly pierced the hearts of the guilty with its horn.
I do not know that the actual motivation was behind the minting of these coins. China produced a number of 1 Oz silver rounds mostly in the late 1980s and 1990s most of which seem primarily directed at celebrating Chinese history and culture.