10 Yuan Year of the Tiger

China's lunar silver series shifted to .999 fineness in 1993, a move that distinguished it from the earlier .900 issues and made these coins attractive to both bullion buyers and collector markets simultaneously. The 1998 Tiger falls midway through a particularly competitive decade for Chinese Mint output, when the People's Bank was aggressively expanding its precious metals program into international markets — particularly the United States and Southeast Asia, where diaspora demand for lunar-themed issues drove mintage decisions as much as domestic policy.

KM#1148 is the standard round issue; a fan-shaped variant was struck the same year, a format the Chinese Mint had been experimenting with since the late 1980s.