10 Yuan 100th Anniversary of Zhou Enlai's Birth

Zhou Enlai died in January 1976, and the public grief that followed was so politically charged that the Gang of Four suppressed official mourning — a decision that contributed directly to the Tiananmen Incident of April that year, when hundreds of thousands gathered in the square ostensibly to honor him. This coin, issued two decades later, reflects how completely his rehabilitation had been consolidated under post-Mao leadership. The .999 fine, one-troy-ounce specification places it squarely in the commemorative bullion format China began aggressively developing through the 1980s for both domestic prestige and hard-currency export markets.