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The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, issued on September 3 a set of colorful gold and silver commemorative coins depicting scenes from the Dream of Red Mansions, a famous Chinese classic novel.
The set of six coins consists of one gold and five silver, all of them legal tender in China.
The obverse of each coin bears a portrait of Cao Xueqin, the author of the classic tale, with the name of the country and the issuing year. On their reverse, the 1/2-ounce gold coin displays the scene of Xiangyun Drunk in Sleep, four 1-ounce silver coins portray Yuanchun Visits Her Parents, Xichun Painting, Xifeng Manipulates Power, and Baochai Swatting Butterflies respectively, which are all well-known scenes in the novel. The five-ounce silver coin features the scene of Girls at an Evening Banquet on its reverse. The denominations of the coins are also shown on the reverse.
The octagonal-shaped 1/2-ounce gold coin contains 0.5 ounce of fine gold, with a nominal value of 200 yuan, and a total distribution of 8,000. The one-ounce silver coin, also an octagonal, has a nominal value of 10 yuan and a distribution of 38,000. The fan-shaped five-ounce silver coin has a nominal value of 50 yuan and a distribution of 11,800.
(china.org.cn by Guo Xiaohong, September 4, 2002)
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