Coins marking Forbidden City's 600th anniversary to be released
The Palace Museum in Beijing and the People's Bank of China announce they will release a series of gold and silver commemorative coins. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
The Palace Museum in Beijing and the People's Bank of China announced together in the museum on Monday that they will release a series of gold and silver commemorative coins marking the 600th anniversary of founding of the Forbidden City.
The Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City, was China's last imperial palace. Its construction was completed in 1420, and the national capital of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was officially moved from Nanjing, today's Jiangsu provincial capital, to Beijing the next year. The Forbidden City is the world's biggest surviving palatial architectural compound made of wood.
The Palace Museum in Beijing and the People's Bank of China announce they will release a series of gold and silver commemorative coins. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Seven commemorative coins are included in a series. Each coin in the set bears the obverse design of the national emblem of the People's Republic of China, and the reverse designs are some of the most representative works of architecture and decorative patterns in the complex.
A highlight is a 1-kilogram gold coin which has the biggest nominal value of 10,000 yuan ($1,433). And only 100 such coins will be available for collectors. A panorama of the Forbidden City seen from the north is on its reverse.
The Palace Museum in Beijing and the People's Bank of China announce they will release a series of gold and silver commemorative coins. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
A total of 60,000 gold coins weighing 3 grams with a 50 yuan-nominal value will also be released.
The biggest commemorative coin unveiled this time is a 2-kg silver coin with a 600-yuan nominal value and a diameter of 13 centimeters. A total of 3,000 such coins are available for collectors.
The Palace Museum in Beijing and the People's Bank of China announce they will release a series of gold and silver commemorative coins. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Three rectangular coins use the "three great halls" on the axis of the Forbidden City -- the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony -- as decorative patterns on their tails sides. A total of 300,000 coins of each type will be released, together with 2 million 2-yuan silver coins with the Chinese auspicious mythical animal kylin on their reverse.
All of them are legally tendered coins in China.
