The Phoenix and Dragon series launched in 1988 as an explicitly export-oriented product, aimed squarely at overseas Chinese communities and the broader international collector market rather than domestic circulation. The People's Bank of China was by 1990 well into its strategy of using commemorative silver issues to generate hard currency, a program that expanded aggressively through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1990 issue is sometimes encountered in early Chinese-market slabs with inconsistent surface assessment — the Shenzhen Guobao mint's polished die work on these pieces interacted poorly with some storage environments, making originality of surfaces a legitimate question on unslabbed examples.
The Phoenix and Dragon series launched in 1988 as an explicitly export-oriented product, aimed squarely at overseas Chinese communities and the broader international collector market rather than domestic circulation. The People's Bank of China was by 1990 well into its strategy of using commemorative silver issues to generate hard currency, a program that expanded aggressively through the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1990 issue is sometimes encountered in early Chinese-market slabs with inconsistent surface assessment — the Shenzhen Guobao mint's polished die work on these pieces interacted poorly with some storage environments, making originality of surfaces a legitimate question on unslabbed examples.