50 Yuan Year of the Tiger, Colored

China's lunar gold series has been running since 1981, but the addition of selective color application to the smaller-denomination pieces became a consistent feature only in the mid-2000s, produced through a surface enamel process rather than painting. The 2010 Tiger issue marks the fourth Tiger-cycle coin in the series — the People's Bank having issued the first in 1986.

Mintage on these colored fractionals was tightly controlled, typically capped at 8,000 pieces.