10 Yuan Goddess Kuan Yin

The Kuan Yin gold series, running through much of the 1980s and 1990s, was part of China's deliberate push into the international bullion and collector coin market following the foreign exchange reforms of the early reform era. Unlike the Panda series aimed squarely at bullion buyers, the Kuan Yin issues targeted Western collectors with an appetite for Chinese religious iconography — a calculated distinction. Mintages were tightly controlled by the People's Bank, and the 1995 issue was among the final strikes before the series was discontinued.