The one in Gilmore's picture is not a Small Date--it is a Large Date 1/2 ounce panda minted by Shanghai mint. This variety is not seen very often. I posted about it back in May 2012:
http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=5699.0Actually, since I made that post, I've found that there is also a 3rd large date variety, about equally as rare as the variety in Gilmore's picture. With some patience, I have been able to acquire all three 1995 Large Date varieties. I've put together collages of the three Large Date varieties, along with a Small Date for comparison. In the pictures, A is the usual (most common) LD variety; B is Gilmore's LD variety; and C is a third LD variety.
I've found the following differences among the three LD varieties:
1. In the usual Variety (A), there is a concave groove or indentation running from behind the panda's ear partway down the back of its neck. On B and C, the back of the panda's neck is convex, and there is no concave groove.
2. In Variety A, the line at the top of the Yuan symbol is "broken": it has a notch about halfway through the bar. It's not easy to see this in pictures, but it's obvious with the coin in hand. This notch is present on every specimen of Type A I have seen. Neither B nor C have this notch.
3. The center of the leaf cluster within the rectangle is open (mirrored) in Varieties A and B, but it is frosted in Variety C.
4. In A, the panda's chest area, indicated by the arrow, is connected to the main tree branch with a white bar. It looks like the designer of the coin may have intended for this to be a smaller twig, since this bar is textured like bark. On Variety B, the white area connecting the panda's chest to the branch does not have a bark-like texture. In C, the panda's chest area is connected to the tree branch by a sharp point, and this area also lacks a bark-like texture. C also has a noticeable bump on the frosting on the panda's chest area, below the left side of its chin. The difference in textures suggests that the design was changed for some reason, perhaps because the twig did not look natural.
5. In variety A, there is a small gap between the panda's belly and the branch. But as Gilmore pointed out, the gap is much larger in B and C. In B and C, the tree branch is bent and thinner in this area, and the panda seems "fatter" since its belly extends to the toes of its back leg more so than in A.
6. Perhaps the most obvious difference is in the leaves below the branch near the panda's bottom foot. In A, the leaves extend behind the branch, but in B and C they are in front of the branch.
7. Differences #1 and #6 suggest an interesting possible connection between Shanghai Varieties B and C and the Shenyang Small Date. As in B and C, the small date has leaves extending in front of the branch (#6), and the back of the panda's neck is convex (#1). Variety A is different in both of these respects.
From what I can tell, Varieties B and C seem to be less common than the usual variety A. Neither one appears in Peter's new book. As a rough guess, I'd estimate that there are only a few dozen NGC specimens of B and C combined, in all grades, out of maybe around 600 LDs total. But I haven't done a comprehensive examination of the NGC certification #s. Perhaps SANDAC or someone else could help with that...
