We gave up on trying to cover all the lunar releases that come out every year, primarily because interest seemed to be waning after the huge numbers of competing designs that were hitting the market around 6–7 years ago caused a bit of burn-out. We do like to cover the more interesting ones, however, and nobody could ever accuse CIT’s dimensional silver releases as being uninteresting.

This outstanding series now adds the 2025 snake to its roster, the seventh to include a dimensional coin, although CIT have been issuing lunars for longer. It’s always been a fine quality range, but the snake, of which I’m one apparently (nonsense, of course), is easily my pick of the issues to date. What a terrific looking coin, covered with texture. We particularly like that it’s only an ounce in weight, making them more affordable. Previous issues have been joined by a gilded version, and we’d expect to see that in the Summer Launch tranche, but to be honest, we’ve always preferred the antiqued one.

As always, the coin is joined by a couple of other releases. There’s a minigold again, carrying the look, but not the shape (there’s only so much you can do with 0.5 grams of metal), and also one of the increasingly rare silver foil ‘banknotes’. Formed in five grams of silver, and sealed in plastic, they’re a great gift idea, especially given the Chinese penchant for giving red envelopes of cash as a gift.

Finally, we have a coin that we believe CIT see as the showpiece of this launch, and it’s named ‘Reconstruction’. It depicts an elephant head, which has been horizontally segmented, with the segments alternately slid to the left or right. Those segments extend to a part of the rim, distorting its shape to suit. The background carries an almost tribal-style pattern.

This is a fine example of just how good smartminting has become. To maintain the edge definition of the segments on something with such high-relief, is quite extraordinary. It’s easy to forget making the metal flow into a shape it probably doesn’t want to go in, is one of the most difficult challenges in minting, and that’s exacerbated by high-relief, and sharp changes in that relief. It isn’t our favourite design in this launch range, but as a technical statement, it’s likely the most impressive.

The obverse continues that ethnic patterned theme, with King Charles III in the centre. The coin comes in a themed frame, and the mintage is capped at 999 pieces. We don’t believe this one is set to be a series yet, as CIT like to gauge interest before committing themselves, but the concept has our interest piqued for sure.