50 Yuan Panda

China's Panda gold series, launched in 1982, was unusual from the outset in that the People's Bank of China changed the panda design nearly every year — a deliberate policy that drove collector demand by ensuring no two annual issues were identical. The year 2000 issue was among the first to carry a mintage cap enforced under tightened export controls introduced in the late 1990s, as Chinese authorities moved to regulate the secondary market that had developed in Hong Kong and among Western bullion dealers.

Varieties exist for this date distinguished by narrow and wide date numerals on the reverse — a detail well-documented among specialists and consequential to value.