1oz Silver Lunar Rooster Coin
In 2014, The Royal Mint started issuing coins in honour of the Chinese zodiac. This is a brand-new bullion finish coin, issued by the Royal Mint. Coins will be packaged loose for small quantities and orders of 25 or more may come in Royal Mint tubes and bulk orders in monster boxes of 500.
In 2017, they launched the fourth coin in the 12 coin Lunar Shengxiao collection, the Year of the Rooster. This follows the Monkey in 2016, the Sheep in 2015 and the Horse in 2014.
On one side is the Jody Clark portrait of Her Majesty The Queen (the fifth portrait) and on the reverse is a design by Wuon-Gean Ho, the British Chinese artist, of a rooster and 10 marsh daisies.
The coin itself contains 1 troy ounce of pure silver. The face value of this coin is £2, but any profits made from its sale are not liable to Capital Gains Tax as it is UK legal tender.
There are only 138,888 of these coins minted.
Year of the Rooster 2017
2017 marks the year of the Fire Rooster. It will be succeeded by the 1oz Silver Lunar Dog coin for 2018.
The Rooster is the 10th zodiac sign of a 12-year Chinese cycle. The fire is because each year is combined with one of five elements. The others being metal, wood, water and earth.
These element/sign combinations only occur once every 60 years.
1oz silver coins – the available options – learn more by watching our video
The year of the Rooster actually started on January 28th2017 and finishes on 15th February 2018.
People who are born in a year of the Rooster are said to be independent, capable, hardworking and warm-hearted.
They also said to be impatient, selfish and narrow-minded.
In Chinese astrology, 2017 will be an unlucky year for Roosters as the Chinese believe that being in your own star sign is unlucky.
Famous Roosters include Prince Philip, Rudyard Kipling, Joan Collins and Beyoncé.
Our expert opinion
The Royal Mint’s Lunar series isn’t to be confused with the Australian (Perth Mint) Lunar Series. There’s nothing wrong with the design and quality of the antipodean version, but as an investment, the foreign silver coin is less desirable to UK residents as they’re not CGT-Free. In contrast, the UK lunar series has a strong demand in the UK due to its legal tender status, qualifying the coin not only as a VAT free silver coin but also free from Capital Gains Tax.
With a limited issue number, and forming part of a twelve coin series, the Silver Rooster also ticks the collectable silver coin box. Not just in the UK, but globally, this element of the coin will help push up demand and future values. In particular, the Chinese theme to the series holds great appeal to the already huge Asian precious metals market, who desire all things British anyway. It was a very shrewd move by the Royal Mint to come up with the idea of Lunar Series, as they’ve made it clear that they seek to expand distribution of their product range globally.
All this means, the coins should prove to be a wise purchase, especially while silver remains undervalued, and moreover in future years when these coins become very hard to obtain. For a tax-efficient alternative with a slightly lower premium, the Silver Britannia is the best selling option. They may not have the collectability of the Lunar Rooster, but they offer great value and can be bought in convenient Monster Boxes of 500 coins, providing ease of storage.
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