Gold Lunar Monkey
The Gold Lunar Monkey is the 3rd in the 12 coin Shengxiao Collection, designed by artist Wuon-Gean Ho. These are brand new Gold coins issued from the Royal Mint. Coins will be packed loose or may come in Royal Mint tubes for orders of ten or more. If you’d like to protect individual coins, these coin capsules fit the Lunar Monkey gold coins.
The monkey succeeds the year of the Sheep in 2015 and year of the Horse in 2014, the first coins in the Lunar series.
The coin is struck in 999.9 gold, providing exactly one ounce of pure gold.
With a face value of £100, any profits made from sale are not liable to Capital Gains Tax.
Chinese Animal Zodiac
The Chinese Animal Zodiac is a repeating 12 year cycle, with each of those twelve years being represented by an animal and its attributes. The various aimals are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. If born in a certain year, a person’s characteristics are meant to reflect those of the represenatative animal, both good and bad. As with many other zodiacs, this analysis is suposed to help gauge compatibility with other people. As with any ancient chinese traditions, there are many fables and superstitions assocaited with the chinese lunar zodiac. For instance, when the year of your birth animal comes around (every twelve years), you’ll experience an entire year of bad luck for offending the God of Age, unless of course you were something red given by an elder – obvious really! Interestingly, the Chinese zodiac yar doesn’t start on January 1st, but most commonly ties in with the lunar calender, with Chinese New Year falling between the dates of 21st January to 20th February, depending on lunar cycles.
Why these twelve animals?
The exact animals selected to represent the cycle have been tweaked and refined over the years. A large number of them reflect the most common household animals for Chinese people, namely dogs, pigs, goats, roosters, ox and horses. The others hold lucky implications and are held in high regard by the Chinese. The order of animal sequence is carefully determined by the ancient theory of ying and yang, or balance. The animals are arranged according to their number of claws, hooves, toes, etc, with an aim of alternating between odd and even. The rat comes first i the sequence because it has it has more toes on its hind legs than fore legs, a rare fact, with rarity being valued enough to place it first. The monkey has five toes per limb (odd – yang) and is positioned ninth in the annual sequence. The monkey’s attribute is changeability, with its saying being ‘changeability without being constant leads to foolishness’.
Our expert opinion
The Gold Lunar Monkey is definitiely a coin worth adding to your collection for several reasons. As a Royal Mint produced legal tender coin, it qualifies as a tax free gold coin. The design in 24 carat gold is beautiful and being part of a limited edition series, makes the coin collectible too. You’ll have to pay a slight premium over standard mass produced bullion coins such as the Britannia, but as a long term investment, it may rise in value quicker due to it’s added desirability. The Royal Mint have been very clever in designing a gold coin series to appeal to the huge Asian market. Already obsessed with everything British, the Mint know that China will have strong demand for these coins as they’re made in their preferred 24 carat (as opposed to the Sovereign coin’s 22 carat), is collectable ad even based on the Chinese zodiac! Having said that, if investment is your main strategy, we’d always recommend a mixed portfolio. Perhaps teaming this with other coins from the series, combing it with Britannias t lower average premium, or with smaller coins like the Half Sovereign to achieve flexibility.
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