50 Yuan Year of the Rooster

China's lunar silver program shifted to a weight-based system in 2016, abandoning the long-running 1 oz format in favor of metric weights — this 150g piece being among the first generation issued under that framework. The change was driven by the People's Bank of China's effort to align bullion coinage with domestic measurement standards, and it caught many Western dealers off-guard, requiring catalog revisions across the major references.

The Rooster is the tenth animal in the Chinese zodiac cycle. 2017 marked the Year of the Ding You Rooster — a Fire Rooster year, occurring once every sixty years under the traditional stem-branch calendar.