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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;areich, post: 1487500, member: 37479&quot;]<b>Giant Panda - Ailuropoda melanoleuca</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps the crown jewel of the WWF set for many collectors, the Chinese in 1986 contributed a Giant Panda Coin (surprise!).&nbsp; The reverse Panda side design is rather artistic, with rising mountains, Bamboo and Ginkgo tastefully arraigned on the coin around a panda&nbsp; sitting on a log in obvious movement.&nbsp; The obverse is not the Temple of Heaven that Panda collectors are used to.&nbsp; Instead it is a circular wreath, with stars inside above what looks like the Imperial Compound in Peking. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]188775.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH]188776.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>For years it has been taught that Panda are not true bears.&nbsp; Boy was that WRONG! Pandas are bears and evolved off the same tree as the Sloth bear, the Short Faced Bear (extinct), the Grizzly and Polar Bear, etc.&nbsp; It has adapted to a completely vegetation diet of bamboo&nbsp; and has developed a large pad in the claw(hand) to give opposing force when holding Bamboo shoots, something other bears would not be able to do.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cladestically all bears are defined as follow (from wikipedia)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is a great video on Bear Evolution including Panda&#039;s.</p><p><br /></p><p>[video=youtube;uZcRMZ3IATc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZcRMZ3IATc[/video]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]188779.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]188780.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This is 5 Yuan coin of only .900 silver fineness.&nbsp; It weighs a light 22.22 grams and has a diameter of 36 mm.&nbsp; it is a proof coin of 25,000 specimens produced by the Chinese Mint.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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