Year of the Rabbit: Chinese commemorative coins find few takers as Covid-19 outbreak saps demand
- Some 6.7 million of the 120 million 10-yuan coins issued by the Chinese central bank for the Year of the Rabbit are yet to be sold
- Demand for gold and silver coins, ranging in price from 540 yuan to 323,000 yuan, has also been muted compared with previous years
The rabbit is one of the cutest animals in the Chinese zodiac, but the demand from consumers for commemorative coins specially minted for the Year of the Rabbit has been particularly muted amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
Some 6.7 million 10-yuan (US$1.47) coins issued by the People’s Bank of China have still not found any takers, nearly a quarter more than similar coins embossed with the tiger zodiac symbol last year, according to data from the PBOC.
Nearly 7 per cent of the coins offered to the public between January 5 and 11 are still available, one of the highest totals since the central bank first started issuing commemorative coins in 2003, the Year of the Goat.
The Chinese central bank said it would issue 120 million coins on December 26 to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The two-tone, copper-alloy coin features an upright baby rabbit in a Chinese paper-cutting pattern facing a lantern hanging from a branch. Two Chinese characters “Gui” and “Mao” printed to the right represent 2023 in the Gregorian-Lunar calendar.
“The collection period [for the commemorative coins] was unfortunately hit by the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, with many people just too sick to even carry out normal activities,” said Kenny Ng Lai-yin, a strategist at Everbright Securities International. “And with many people incurring huge medical expenses recently, they may not be willing to invest in such unnecessary items.”
A weakening economy and a pessimistic job and wage outlook have also likely weighed on the uptake of these commemorative coins, he added.