Topic: The Journey of the Chinese Classical Garden Series of Medals

[KeepOnTrying!]

Here is an updated table showing the actual mintages of the Classical Chinese Garden Medals. The final medal is slated for release in 2017. Meanwhile the Zhuozhengyuan medal should be hitting the streets soon!

With a mintage of 188 the matte brass medal is already proving difficult to source!

[KeepOnTrying!]

Given that the Chinese Classical Garden medals series were initially announced and discussed under the "News" heading there does not seem to be much that has been posted in that regards recently. The silver and antique silver Humble Administrator's medals are already on sale but the Brass medals have not yet appeared on our (love/hate) eBay sales platform.

What is happening?

There is talk of die cracking problems and stuff like that with the minting of the brass medals. But this is the stuff that coin and medal aficionados luxuriate in. Enthusiasts don't require perfection; they just want to be kept in the loop.

So what's happening?

[KeepOnTrying!]

It’s always interesting examining the Classical Garden medals to identify design elements and their true life correlates. The 2016 Humble Administrator’s Garden medal was not easy to decipher initially until I realized that the artist was layering the image profile with different sections/aspects of the garden.

I haven’t figured it all out but a few examples are represented in the attached images.

[KeepOnTrying!]

Minting of the proof and antiqued Brass Zhuozhengyuan medals has been completed.

[KeepOnTrying!]

The last medal of the Shanghai Mint Classical Chinese Garden medal series is expected to be released sometime this year. From what I hear Luo Yonghui will design and engrave the medal which is going to weigh 20oz and consist of .999 proof silver. This is an omnibus type of medal depicting scenes from all prior medals of the series. The mintage is projected to be 200 and silver will be the only metal type for this release. (This information is subject to confirmation).

[KeepOnTrying!]

Artist's rendition of the 2017 20oz Proof Silver Classical Chinese Garden medal.

[eric]

It is an anniversary edition, or final in the series?

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It is an anniversary edition, or final in the series?

Final.

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The trial strikes of the final medal in the Shanghai Mint Chinese Classical Garden medal series have begun. Preliminary photos are posted.

The first attachment is of the side where medals of the series are depicted.

[KeepOnTrying!]

The second attachment is what I called the "Garden" side until we have a more authoritative description of that side.

Does anyone recognize the Garden or part of garden being depicted?

[fwang2450]

This is the depiction of a classical garden called Genyue in the ancient capital Bianjing (modern day Kaifeng) of the Song Dynasty. In this Wiki article, you can see some brief mentioning of the garden under Song Dynasty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_garden. More info is available here: https://www.ft.com/content/9120860e-a48a-11e3-9313-00144feab7de

[NBM]

I suppose they've stuck with the decision to mint this in only the 20 oz size?
It seems sad they would end their series this way, any ideas why they chose to do this?

[fwang2450]

I suppose they've stuck with the decision to mint this in only the 20 oz size?
It seems sad they would end their series this way, any ideas why they chose to do this?

You can see that this design calls for a large medal. Smaller surfaces won't be able to show all the details of the previous medals. This is a summary, so to speak, of the previous ones.

[KeepOnTrying!]

I suppose they've stuck with the decision to mint this in only the 20 oz size?
It seems sad they would end their series this way, any ideas why they chose to do this?

You can see that this design calls for a large medal. Smaller surfaces won't be able to show all the details of the previous medals. This is a summary, so to speak, of the previous ones.

I still wish they also did this medal as antiqued silver but the design concept is good (IMO!!!) as it showcases all medals in the series.