10 Yuan 100th Anniv of Birth, Xu Beihong, painter

Xu Beihong died in 1953, and by the time this coin was issued his reputation had been thoroughly institutionalized by the PRC — he had been the first president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and was closely associated with Zhou Enlai. The centennial commemoration fit neatly into a decade when the Chinese mint was aggressively expanding its silver commemorative program for foreign collector markets.

The .925 fineness is slightly atypical for Chinese silver commemoratives of this period, which more commonly used .999.