In China, gold coins rise and jewelry falls

On 9 November 2026, Numismatic News (opens in a new tab) (Richard Giedroyc; the column is marked updated that day) reports that in China gold coin is outpacing gold jewelry. Those coins are not in Notofilia’s virtual collection.

What the Council measures

The World Gold Council (opens in a new tab) dated 30 July 2026 the jewellery chapter of Gold Demand Trends for the second quarter. In mainland China, jewellery fell 28 percent from the same quarter of 2025, to 50.0 tonnes, from 69.2. That is the lowest second quarter since 2004. The first half closed at 136 tonnes, 30 percent lower. The report also gives spending in value terms. This note does not copy it.

Numismatic News credits the Council with a Chinese-household share of 16 to 22 percent of annual gold demand, and it cites a 2025 report on marriages and births. Those two sentences are not on the jewellery page we opened.

The Association

The China Gold Association (opens in a new tab) published first-half consumption on 6 August 2026. The total was 511.412 tonnes, up 1.23 percent. Jewellery: 132.133 tonnes, down 33.88 percent. Bars and coins: 339.336 tonnes, up 28.42 percent. Industrial and other uses: 39.943 tonnes, down 2.90 percent. Numismatic News rounds jewellery to 132.1 tons and bars and coins to 339.3 tons. The Association’s note closes with the London fix and the Au9999 close. This note does not copy those quotes. The tonnes are consumption, not the price of a coin.

What the column adds

Numismatic News gives store closings this note did not check against each firm’s own report. Chow Tai Seng: a net reduction of 473 stores. The column calls Lao Feng Xiang China’s oldest jeweler and gives it 174 years; it says the firm closed 342 outlets in third- and fourth-tier cities. China Gold closed 323. Chow Tai Fook, which the column dates to a 1929 founding, closed 258. Of China Gold and Chow Tai Fook, the text says both tie their second-quarter closings mainly to franchise contraction.

The column quotes Yu Qian, introduced in the South China Morning Post as a frequent buyer of gold jewelry: “A lot of young people here are reluctant to get married now. Gold jewelry and the bride price have both become heavy financial burdens for young couples getting married.” We did not open that paper.

The Panda

The column goes on to the gold Panda. The first issue, it says, is 1982. The reverse changes the panda’s pose each year. The obverse repeats the Temple of Heaven, in Beijing, and the People’s Republic legend. The coins have been struck in .999 and .9999 fineness. Since 2016 the weights are metric: 1, 3, 8, 15, and 30 grams. Numismatic News writes that the Chinese mint was the first major sovereign mint to leave the troy ounce for the gram. Each piece carries a yuan face value and, for that reason, the column treats it as legal tender. Proof collector versions exist too. That is the column’s account. We did not measure a Panda.

Numismatic News quotes APMEX: it is still possible to buy a one-troy-ounce Panda, dated from 1984 to 2015, at a higher premium because they are scarcer. The 30-gram piece sits near the ounce and, on that quotation, about 1.1 grams lighter. We did not open the APMEX page. There is no figure for that premium.

China Gold Coin Group Company Ltd., the column says, is the only State Council-approved company for precious-metal commemorative coins. The founding date it gives is 1987. It quotes the company site: planning, design, production, sales, publicity, and service, as an extension of the People’s Bank of China’s issuing role. In November 2021 it changed from an enterprise owned by the whole people into a limited liability company. The network it lists: direct channels, commercial banks, franchised dealers, and overseas distributors. We did not open that site.

The case

The collection does have a Chinese note with the Temple of Heaven, and it is not a Panda. The millennium 100 yuan (Pick 902, serial J04445744) carries the temple in the clear window. The paper in the China case is renminbi, not investment gold. The photograph on this note is the building in Beijing, pygmymammoth’s file on Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) (5 August 2017, CC0). It is not the coin and not the note.