100 Yuan Temple of Heaven, Pattern

This is one of the earliest pattern gold strikes produced by the People's Bank of China as it explored international bullion coin formats in the post-reform period following Deng Xiaoping's economic opening. The Temple of Heaven motif was under active consideration for what would become China's flagship gold bullion program — the Gold Panda series launched in 1982 — before pandas displaced it as the recurring reverse subject.

KM#Pn3 documents it as a pattern, meaning it never progressed to circulation or official bullion release. Surviving examples are exceedingly few.