250 Patacas Year of the Rat

Issued under Macao's twelve-year lunar cycle commemorative program, the 2008 rat year coin falls at the opening of a Chinese zodiac series that the Monetary Authority had been producing since the mid-1990s. The rat holds the first position in the traditional cycle — a detail that gave this particular release mild ceremonial emphasis in the Chinese-speaking collector market, especially given the convergence with the Beijing Olympic year.