What’s Your Sign? Spectacular Lunar Zodiac Chinese Gold Coins!
The Chinese Zodiac is comprised of twelve animal representations and is traditionally referred to as “Sheng xiao”. The twelve animals represent not only each month of the year, but also each year of a twelve-year cycle. The Chinese Zodiac is not like ours, which assigns itself equivalent constellations. The zodiac symbols are representative of twelve diverse personalities that are found in people. Beginning with the year 1900, assign it to the first animal, then follow with 1901 and assign it to the second animal and so forth. The animals are as follows: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Once you have assigned a year to all the animals, you can then keep adding the number twelve to the original year, until your birth year falls into one of the animal categories. For example, the Rat years are 1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, etc. The Chinese zodiac signs are popular today and are used in other oriental and occidental cultures.

To honor the Chinese zodiac, Lunar Zodiac Chinese gold coins were released. The first gorgeous, gold lunar zodiac series was started in 1981, with the Rooster, going through 1992 and the round, 8-gram gold proof coins were minted in .917 pure gold. The denomination starts with 250 Yuan, for the first year coins and then 200 Yuan, for the second year, with the rest of years being 150 Yuan. On the reverse of the dazzling 1981 coins is the White Pagoda Baita in Beijing; on the 1982 coins is the Hall of Prayer For Good Harvest, in the Temple of Heaven. The following years of these impressive Chinese gold coins have different places of cultural and religious importance. From 1988-1999, beginning with the Dragon, a round, 1-ounce gold proof of .999 pure gold was released. The denomination is 100 Yuan and on the reverse of the 1988 coin, is the Temple of Heaven, with the State Seal on the remainder of the years’ reverse. In 1988-1999 a 5-ounce and 12-ounce round, gold coin series was also released.
