500 Yuan Founding of Hong Kong Admin Region

Issued to mark the handover of Hong Kong from British administration on July 1, 1997, this coin was produced at a politically charged moment — the transfer ending 156 years of colonial rule following the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration negotiated by Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang. The People's Bank struck several denominations in this series, with this five-ounce piece sitting at the top of the range.

Mintage for the gold issues in this series was tightly controlled, and the 1997 handover coins collectively attracted significant speculative buying in the months surrounding the transfer — demand that quickly outpaced production allocations from authorized distributors.