China’s central bank to issue commemorative coins themed on famous ancient painting from Tang Dynasty

The obverse of the 150-gram commemorative gold coin featuring the famous ancient Chinese painting called “Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk” by Tang Dynasty (618-907) painter Zhang Xuan. (Photo/PBOC)

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), China’s central bank, is planning to issue a set of gold and silver commemorative coins featuring the famous ancient Chinese painting called “Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk” by Tang Dynasty (618-907) painter Zhang Xuan, which are set to be released to the public on Aug. 29, 2022, according to the official website of the PBC.

The set will consist of one rectangular gold coin and three round silver coins. All of them will be legal tender in China.

The obverse side of the coins will feature images of writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and ink stones, supplemented with bamboo leaves, windows, and other elements. The country name and year of issuance will also be inscribed on the obverse side of the coins.

The reverse side of the gold coin will feature a scene from the painting “Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk,” with the court ladies seen pounding on silk fabric with sticks to make the material softer, which was one of the steps when preparing newly woven silk in ancient times. This side of the gold coin will also be inscribed with the denomination of the coin, Chinese characters reading "Tang Dynasty - Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk," and some decorative patterns.

In addition to the denominations, the Chinese characters reading "Tang Dynasty - Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk," and decorative patterns, each of the silver coins will feature one of the other scenes from the painting on its reverse side, including scenes of court ladies sewing, ironing and pulling silk fabric.

The gold coin will be 64 mm in length and 40 mm in width, contain 150 grams of pure gold, and have a face value of 2,000 yuan (about $291.38). The maximum issuing number of the gold coin will be 1,000.

Each of the silver coins will contain 60 grams of pure silver and have a diameter of 45 mm and a denomination of 20 yuan. Their maximum issuing number will be 10,000 each.