In what has come as a little of a surprise in the current market, the Royal Mint has announced that for the first time it has sold-out of bullion coins from its Lunar Shēngxiào Collection. It’s only the third release in its twelve-coin lunar cycle, but the coin has been well recieved and in conjunction with new bullion buying and storing schemes the mint is now implementing, the Year of the Monkey coin has sold out all 138,888 silver 1oz coins, and all 8,888 1oz golds. I should note that earlier years had higher mintages, but that’s still impressive given it’s a series still finding its feet in a very crowded market. The first time addition of Jody Clark’s new effigy of Queen Elizabeth II may also have been a factor, the only lunar coin in the world to have it. You can find out more about the coins in our earlier news article.
Less of a surprise, on January 25th the Perth Mint announced that it had also sold out of its bullion lunar 1oz coins, in this case 300,000 silver and 30,000 gold. Long established, the Perth Mints Lunar bullion range is on its second 12 year cycle, so a veteran compared to the new Royal Mint Shēngxiào range. Every year since the Lunar II cycle started in 2008 has similarly sold out, the 2012 Dragon coins being especially successful. You can read more about the Lunar Series I range in what we hope you’ll find to be our very comprehensive guide to the series.
To note, both of these announcements are simply being sold out at the mint and don’t mean that you can’t pick them up from dealers worldwide. They do however, mean that some dealers may start shuffling prices up gradually as a result. Keep an eye on the market if you’re interested in these would be our advice.
Thanks for information, Mik. I ordered some silver BU monkeys more. I like the way of the design and artwork by Wuon-Gean Ho.. I hope I will have luck with the coins, because the scratches and milk spots appear on the BU Royal Mint coins. 3 of my sheeps are even minted with a chip on the obverse die ;(