200 Yuan Completion of first 12 years of 1 Ounce Chinese Zodiac Bullion

Issued in 1999 to mark the completion of the first full twelve-year cycle of China's gold and silver zodiac bullion program, which the People's Bank of China had launched in 1981 with the Year of the Rooster. That inaugural series established the now-familiar annual format of issuing both gold and silver pieces keyed to the traditional lunar calendar, a program that has continued uninterrupted since. The 1999 commemorative consolidates the cycle's conclusion into a single substantial piece.

Production of kilo-weight silver coins at this diameter required die work and planchet preparation beyond routine bullion operations — the PBoC contracted striking to the Shanghai and Shenyang mints, whose capacity for large-format commemoratives had expanded considerably through the 1990s.