Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Yuan Classic Literature - Romance of Three Kingdoms
| Issuer | People's Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1997 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Yuan (500元, 五佰圓) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Bust of Luo Guanzhong, author of the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, depicted in three-quarter view facing right, wearing a traditional Chinese scholar's hat and robes, rendered in high relief against a plain field. The curved legend at top reads in Chinese '中华古典文学《三国演义》作者罗贯中' identifying the subject as the author of the classic literary work. Below the portrait, the legend '中华人民共和国' denotes the issuing nation, and the date '1997' appears in the lower field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Chinese |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series was issued during a period when the People's Bank of China was aggressively expanding its commemorative gold program, competing directly with Western mints for collector markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora. The novel itself — attributed to Luo Guanzhong and compiled in the 14th century from centuries of oral tradition — carries particular political weight given the contested question of Taiwan's relationship to the mainland, lending these pieces an unspoken subtext that was almost certainly not lost on Beijing's planners.
The 1997 date is no accident: Hong Kong's handover made that year a moment of deliberate cultural assertion.