25 Yuan Panda, Bimetallic

The bimetallic Panda issues of the mid-1990s emerged from the Chinese Mint's effort to expand the Panda program beyond its standard single-metal format, experimenting with gold-in-silver construction at a time when bimetallic coinage technology was gaining traction globally following the success of the Italian 500 Lire. The 1996 issue was produced in relatively small quantities compared to the bullion Pandas of the same year, and the dual KM references reflect ongoing cataloguing disagreements between early and revised editions of Krause rather than any genuine variety distinction.