So, recently found the wife and I will be having our second little one this year. Also recently learned that a number of world mints produce various legal tender coins commemorating the particular year of the Lunar/Chinese Zodiac (e.g., 2012 is the Year of the Dragon). When released here in the U.S., I plan to purchase for the new child proof and uncirculated sets of this year's coins, along with perhaps the 2012 Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Silver Dollar and a 2012 American Silver Eagle (I've gotten the 2009 proof and mint sets for child #1, and still need to get a Lincoln Bicentennial Silver Dollar 2009 ASE for her as well -- got back into numismatics in mid-2011 and I'm still playing catch up on the 2009 coins for her). Given that my kids/will be are half Vietnamese (the half they get from their mother, not me), and that the Lunar New Year and Lunar Zodiac are a part of their ancestral culture, I thought that adding a Lunar coin from a world mint would be good addition to the custom birth year sets I'm preparing for them. So, I'm looking for your advice on the best Lunar Coin I can get, with the following requirements: 1) That it be legal tender in its nation of origin. 2) That it have a relatively low maximum mintage. 3) That it not only have a 2012 version for child #2, but also a 2009 Year of the Ox version for child #1's birth year set. While it would have been neat to get such a coin from Vietnam such that the coins would have Viet words on them, I can't find anything like this minted in Vietnam, plus there's the issue of not wanting to give any seniorage profit (even if small) to a communist regime my wife's family risked life and limb to escape from 34 years ago. After spending some hours researching this myself, I've come upon the Australian Gilded 1-oz. Silver coins, which have a maximum mintage of 50,000 each. Links to the coins are here: http://www.perthmint.com.au/catalog...i-2012-year-of-the-dragon-gilded-edition.aspx http://www.perthmint.com.au/catalogue/australian-lunar-series-ii-2009-gilded-ox-1oz-silver-coin.aspx The positives about these coins are the limited mintages what I think are strikingly beautiful designs on the reverses. The downsides I see of this one that they're relatively pricey (around US$100/each for 1 oz. of silver), and they've got the image of the Queen on the obverse (not that I have anything personally against her, I just don't generally like the idea of a living monarch being on a coin). Any other suggestions y'all might have? Thanks, Brian
Hello Brian! Congratulations first! I think your choices of Austrian one-oz silvers are good ones. They look really beautiful. But I think you may also take a look at Chinese one-oz proof lunar silver. Here I borrowed some photos from the web. And they also have 1/10-oz gold. The reverses of Dragon and Ox silvers are similiar. The mintages are 200,000 and 100,000 respectively. A little higher mintages. But the designs are more traditional than Austrilian ones (at least to someone like me from a country where Lunar calendar is used so offen)! BTW, you also called them Chinese Zodiac yourself! But the biggest problem is that you should buy them from big dealers with great reputation. Your local dealers are even better. Coins from eBay sellers may be fake! Sadly, many are from China! You should check eBay sellers and their coins carefully! Anyway, hope you can also think about my recommendations! Regards, Assur
