50 Yuan Changxin court lantern

The Changxin Palace Lantern — the specific artifact referenced by this issue — was excavated in 1968 from the tomb of Dou Wan, wife of Liu Sheng, a Han dynasty prince buried in Mancheng, Hebei. Cast in bronze and gilded, the original lantern dates to roughly 172 BC and was designed so that the attendant figure's hollow sleeve channeled smoke inward, preventing it from escaping into the room. Its recovery from an undisturbed tomb made it one of the most significant Han archaeological finds of the twentieth century.

This coin belongs to China's early run of gold commemoratives tied to cultural heritage objects rather than political anniversaries — a program that began gaining momentum in the late 1980s as the People's Bank sought export-oriented collector issues for foreign exchange revenue.