10 Yuan 600th Anniversary of Zheng He's Voyage

Issued to mark the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's first departure from Nanjing in 1405, this coin arrived at a moment of deliberate political rehabilitation. Beijing had been actively promoting Zheng He as a symbol of peaceful Chinese maritime engagement — a direct counter-narrative to Western and Japanese imperial expansion in the region — and the anniversary became a state occasion, complete with official ceremonies and a wave of commemorative publications.

Zheng He commanded a fleet of treasure ships that dwarfed anything European powers were sailing at the time, reaching East Africa decades before Portuguese navigators rounded the Cape of Good Hope.