I acquired this album a while back and I forgot where I placed it. Thankfully it has come out of hiding. It was actually in a sorry state where the pages were falling apart. I had decided to scan it prior to taping it up. This album features the first ten years of commemorative coins that were meant to be circulated. Therefore it doesn't include the 1980 Lake Placid base metal panda yuan, 1982 football and 1983 - 1984 panda in brass. Link: http://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/china_comm_coin_1984_1993_scan A lot of the early Chinese commemorative 'circulation' coins are actually very beautiful and can command serious prices. In particular the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Bank of China and Ningxia are quite scarce. Despite the mintage of 1 - 2 million, if you consider the Chinese population of more than 1 billion - you can see why they are in big demand! If I understand correctly, most of the 40th Anniversary commemorative coins were given or exchanged by bank employees, making this probably the key date. You can see on ebay that sellers are asking for a decent fortune despite being struck in base metal! (probably another question whether buyers are prepared to pay that much) Whether they managed to circulate or not, I'm sure when they were released in circulation, they were quickly hoarded and didn't last in circulation for too long. I have handled a couple of circulated examples. I personally like the 1986 Year of Peace coin as well as the 1987 Xinjiang (Sinkiang) 1 yuan coin. The Tibet coin is also quite nice as well. While the scan has blurred the photos especially near the middle of the pages, better photos can be seen at omnicoin. I should have most of the early duplicates - just didn't get around to photograph all the coins inside this album. Here are some of my favorites: Please feel free to post some of your early Chinese commemorative coinage!
After reviewing the thread concerning the counterfeit morgans that Chinese authorities apparently don't give a whit about, I'm not sure that I'd support Chinese numismatics. The coins that you've shown are pretty, though.
I am afraid to buy any Chinese coin that hasn't passed through NGC/PCGS. It is unfortunate that the Chinese government can't or won't control the counterfeiters. That's very shortsighted. The commemorative coins shown above are attractive and I wouldn't mind collecting them.
