1990's Gold Pandas - Low Mintage Sleepers

A recent comment raised a subject that I have been meaning to discuss for a while: I believe that the real surviving mintages for many of the Gold Panda coins of the 1990's is quite low.

The 1990's was a time of very low gold demand. Gold was declining in price and few collectors or investors were buying. Official mint sales limits were not met, and dealers could not sell the inventory of coins they had purchased.

Recent information published by the official Chinese Panda distributor has shown that the number of coins actually shipped by the mint at that time was much lower than what was officially published at the time. Ranging from 50,000 down to as low as 4,000 coins for some issues.

I have heard from long time dealers that sales were so poor in those days that many dealers were forced to liquidate thousands of unsold gold pandas by selling them to refiners to be melted down. It is unkown how many gold panda coins were lost.

As one who watches the sales on ebay and other areas, I have observed that the mid-1990's Pandas are less common. As investors and collectors worldwide move to gold and numismatics as a store of wealth against depreciating currencies, these coins are likely to emerge as unexpected rarities.

Have you got your 1990's Pandas?    Rare Panda Coins

1990's Actual Mintages

Year	1oz	1/2oz	1/4oz	1/10oz	1/20oz
1990	53,898	35,091	31,148	216,546	348,246
1991	36,367	32,717	54,548	81,792	206,254
1992	41,120	26,495	72,537	116,999	216,305
1993	40,449	31,254	80,006	86,318	158,364
1994	24,438	16,788	20,388	55,182	133,226
1995	17,412	11,749	13,710	45,007	97,910
1996	22,009	13,849	17,589	57,203	145,347
1997	30,457	15,483	21,909	46,628	54,853
1998	20,507	4,168	13,009	8,502	27,483
1999	32,439	12,482	18,013	25,501	37,171
2000	29,011	20,811	24,811	44,511	41,837