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100 Yuan Qi Baishi - Praying Mantis
| Issuer | People's Republic of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1997 |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Chinese |
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| Reverse description | The reverse depicts a naturalistic scene in the traditional Chinese ink-painting style of Qi Baishi, featuring a leafy branch with broad foliage extending across the field, a praying mantis delicately rendered among the leaves, and seed pods hanging from the composition. A classical Chinese legend '豆荚草虫图' (Bean Pod and Insects) is inscribed along the upper portion of the field, accompanied by what appears to be the artist's seal script signature. The denomination '100元' is inscribed in the lower right field. |
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| Additional information |
This coin belongs to the People's Bank of China's long-running Qi Baishi commemorative series, issued to honor the ink-wash painter who rose from illiterate peasant carpentry apprentice to become arguably the most celebrated Chinese artist of the twentieth century. Qi died in 1957 at around 93, having lived long enough to be named a World Cultural Celebrity by the World Peace Council in 1953 — a designation Beijing leveraged enthusiastically for soft-power purposes throughout the Cold War.
The 1997 date places this issue in the year of Hong Kong's handover, when the mint was producing prestige silver at considerable volume for the collector export market.