25 Yuan Goddess Kuan Yin

The Kuan Yin gold series, issued annually by the People's Bank of China through the 1980s and 1990s, was aimed squarely at the overseas Chinese collector market — particularly buyers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, where devotion to the bodhisattva of compassion cuts across Buddhist and folk religious traditions alike. The 1995 issue marks one of the final years of the series before it was discontinued.

Chinese gold bullion coins of this period were distributed internationally through the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation — COFCO — an arrangement that strikes modern collectors as odd but reflected the state-controlled export infrastructure of the era.