Folks,
I'm new to this forum, but have been collecting Pandas (Au-Sweat of the Sun & Ag-Tears of the Moon, more so Ag as I'm just an ordinary nobody trying to live with champagne taste on a beer budget) since first arriving in China in Feb 2005. All my years here have been in Nanjing, a 2nd tier city of now around 7-8 million about 150-200 miles from Shanghai. I also lived for two years, 2009-2011, in Tibet, Lhasa during my 2nd time there, my first time there was in 2006. I've ridden the railroad route across China, Nanjing-Lhasa 7 times. During a circumambulation of Mt. Kailash I got up to roughly 18,500 ft. on the Kailash backside Drolma Pass; (highest I've ever been not counting perhaps a few Grateful Dead concerts back in the '70s but we're not goin' there, memory is a bit fuzzy.) I'm American, over 50.
During my early years here I was getting great stuff for Very cheap prices, far below Western market values at the time, an advantage of a 2nd tier city vs. a 1st tier (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong)
In recent years though prices have begun to rise, and interested Chinese with money have increased. Over the years I would get this and that, what I can when I can, things of interest and/or things that seem to be a particularly good deal at the time.
Ag table attached......
Except for the PCGS stuff, everything else I've gotten locally, either Nanjing or Lhasa.
In 2011 when Xi Jinping went to Lhasa for their really big 2-day observance of the 60th (60 is an especially auspicious number in both Chinese and Tibetan cultures) Anniversary of the
'Peaceful Liberation' (ahem) of Tibet, I was invited as a VIP guest to attend all the events, (dinner and Broadway style stage show the first evening with Xi Jinping and big delegation of Beijing Party Commies and big parade the next day in front of the Potala Palace also with Xi).
I was literally the ONLY American in attendance, among the many photos (and little bit of video), I've got some of Xi only some 20-30 feet away from my seat immediately next to the hot shot delegation, I was closer even than a group of top military generals, etc.
(In 1995 I personally met HH The Dalai Lama in Atlanta when I lived there, though this of course most certainly did NOT have any bearing on my having been invited for those who may not be especially astute about China/Tibet politics)
You won't find any of my photos/stories about this on the internet as I'm a somewhat private person, though I do have them and some various other mementos from this relatively/somewhat historically significant event.
So naturally I had to also get any and all associated Au & Ag with the event that I could get my hands on, which I did. The commemorative Au/Ag set is one of 2000 from the total number of sets that has special packaging that was blessed by the current Beijing gov't approved, bogus Panchen Lama; nonetheless it's a really nice set.
Anyway, collectors are increasing among increasingly savvy Chinese with money and relatively few places to put it.
