CHINA 30 yuan 1980 Olympic skater

Description

The Peoples Republic was officially established in 1949. Internal mopping up operations continued for a number of years. The government fears anarchy and likes to keep a strong police presence. They’ve concentrated on increasing economic security for the people. As far as coinage goes, they kept it strictly utilitarian until the 80s, when they started making commemoratives to sell at a premium as a profitable product by the mint. They’ve generally succeeded with that program, issuing a profusion of precious metal objects that generally sell well and appreciate in value.

The big player in East Asia is China, of course. Then there is Japan and Korea, throw in Mongolia. South of China and east of India, but not including, for the most part, the islands to the east, is what we call Southeast Asia. From Burma to Malaya there have been a series of local kingdoms for about 2000 years. Russia, with its Asian Siberia, doesn’t count. We consider it part of Europe.

By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.