25 Yuan Forbidden City - Gardens

Issued as part of the People's Bank of China's Forbidden City series, this 1997 piece falls in the year of Hong Kong's handover — a moment the Chinese government was keen to mark with a broader program of prestige numismatic output. The Gardens issues within this series drew on specific architectural sections of the Imperial Palace complex rather than generic palace imagery, each coin assigned to a distinct area of the grounds.

The series was produced in limited numbers for the collector export market, with distribution handled largely through overseas dealers and Hong Kong-based numismatic channels in the months surrounding the July 1 transition.