50 Yuan Year of the Rooster

The 1993 Chinese Lunar series 150-yuan gold and 50-yuan silver issues marked a period when the People's Bank of China was aggressively expanding its bullion and commemorative program for foreign exchange revenue — hard currency the state needed badly in the early reform era. The 155.52g five-ounce silver format was a deliberate premium product aimed at overseas collector markets, particularly the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia and North America.

KM#512 is the proof issue; mintages for these five-ounce lunar pieces were tightly controlled and officially reported in the low thousands.