TRIAL STRIKES (SPECIMENS)
Mint officials perform a trial strike in order to test the dies, before the production run begins. The coins obtained from these strikes are sometimes used for presentation purposes, or more often just recycled by the mint. Occasionally, a few of these coins may make their way into the hands of collectors.
Modern Chinese trial strikes are usually made on a metal blank similar to the one which will be used for the production coins. Sometimes trial strikes are made on blanks of a different metal composition.
Chinese trial strikes are unique in that they always have a trial stamp -- a two-character Chinese inscription (see photos above). These two characters literally mean ‘sample coin’.
Mintage figures are not available for the earlier, pre-1989, trial strikes, however there were possibly less than 100 produced for each coin type. From 1989 onwards, the Chinese mint began producing trial strikes in larger numbers, up to 18,000 pieces per design, for promotional purposes. These uncirculated coins were distributed in small plastic display holders of various designs. In several years, there were also proof trial strikes minted.
Numismatists in China believe that many of the trial strike pieces ended up in general circulation, as the actual availability does not match the supposed supply. Thus, the prices paid for good quality examples can be quite high.
In my opinion, the collecting of high-grade examples could be a very interesting and worthwhile specialty for the adventuresome numismatist. The book is not yet written on this, very special, niche of Chinese numismatics!
Some trial strike examples are listed below. The list below is not complete as I always update the commemoratives page before this one. For a more complete listing, please check the commemoratives page.
MORE EXAMPLE PHOTOS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
