September 28, 2004
Gold
Since the market has not been cooperating with me lately to give me trades I figured I'd post something of interest? This is a quarter ounce of gold pressed as a coin and minted in China the year I began to live there for a year. It is not really an investment as I doubt I'd sell it if gold were to double in a month, but as a keepsake or commemorative thing for myself to reflect on my year in Beijing. It looks nice, so I figured I would share!
On the front is a panda. This front is always consistent in a year across all weights of gold for that year. Each year the panda design changes, but remains as a panda. There was one year they froze the design on the obverse (meaning two consecutive years show the same thing), but the collectors complained and they resumed new artwork each year.
On the back is the Temple of Heaven or phonetically 'Tiantan' for the Chinese name. This is constant throughout the entire minting of this series that began in 1982. I would guess as technology improved the image would be sharper these days than the days of old. Unfortunately I never did get a clear shot of Tiantan with my digital camera without me in the foreground, so I don't have an interesting photo to post here of that. I will definitely get to there the next time I pass through Beijing, but I do not have a plan nor a clue when that time would be.
COPYRIGHT: © Me September 27, 2004