TomD
15th June 2011, 07:32 PM
Apparently the Chinese Panda coins have been rehabilitated from the counterfeiting catastrophe of the mid-2000's. I had bought a fair number of them but for a while they were almost valueless because there were seemingly 10 counterfeit coins for every real one. I just stuffed mine to the back and forgot about them. Good thing cause I just checked to find that they are pulling in Lunar Dragon price levels.
I found out because I post occasionally at an Australian PM site called Silver Stackers. I noticed a couple of threads with everyone going nuts over Pandas and when I mentioned the little counterfeit problem it was "oh, that was years ago". Apparently the Chinese government got involved in that gentle way of theirs with bullets to the brain and the problem went away! Amazing! I've been buying one or two a year recently just to keep up with what I think is a beautiful series but the last time I bought any Pandas in quantity was 2005.
The last coin is a 1999 which is fairly typical for the design on the earlier coins, notice the increase in complexity in the later years. The 2011 is just above the 1999, the areas of white and black on the 20011 aren't a a paint or finish, it has to do with the light reflecting from microscopic features in the silver itself. It only looks like that from certain angles.
BTW: Not often I get to break in a brand new forum.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/2002Panda1-1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/2008-pandasized.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/panda2011-1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/1999Panda.jpg
I found out because I post occasionally at an Australian PM site called Silver Stackers. I noticed a couple of threads with everyone going nuts over Pandas and when I mentioned the little counterfeit problem it was "oh, that was years ago". Apparently the Chinese government got involved in that gentle way of theirs with bullets to the brain and the problem went away! Amazing! I've been buying one or two a year recently just to keep up with what I think is a beautiful series but the last time I bought any Pandas in quantity was 2005.
The last coin is a 1999 which is fairly typical for the design on the earlier coins, notice the increase in complexity in the later years. The 2011 is just above the 1999, the areas of white and black on the 20011 aren't a a paint or finish, it has to do with the light reflecting from microscopic features in the silver itself. It only looks like that from certain angles.
BTW: Not often I get to break in a brand new forum.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/2002Panda1-1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/2008-pandasized.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/panda2011-1.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x229/TomD77/1999Panda.jpg