10 Yuan Dreams of Red Mansion

The "Dream of the Red Chamber" commemorative series drew from one of the four canonical novels of classical Chinese literature, written by Cao Xueqin in the mid-18th century. The 2002 issue is the fourth coin in a multi-year series that the People's Bank of China began in 1999, each release focusing on different characters and scenes from the novel's sprawling cast of over four hundred named figures.

Mintages for individual issues in this series were tightly controlled, typically around 60,000 pieces, which has sustained collector demand across the whole run.