Lunar Silver Bars

Chinese Lunar Year Silver Bars

Precious metal collecting is one of the oldest known hobbies, and it was once practiced only by nobles and royalty, earning it the nickname “king of hobbies.” People become collectors for a variety of reasons — to learn the history behind each piece or to display their collection — but recently, the growing trend in purpose for this hobby is that it makes for a great investment when talking about owning physical silver.

Commemorative series offer anticipation and eventually satisfaction when you’ve finally collected the last piece. They also add value to your investment portfolio as single pieces or a completed series. Representing each of the twelve Chinese lunar calendar signs, the Lunar Series Silver Bars are smart investments to diversify a portfolio, and they also serve as great conversation pieces.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar and Silver Bars

The Chinese lunar calendar, also known as the Chinese zodiac calendar, translates to “circle of animals.” The calendar consists of a twelve-year cycle and features twelve animal characters. Each animal represents qualities that, according to ancient Chinese tradition, those born under each sign will likely have, as well.

The zodiac calendar remains popular to this day, not only in China and other East Asian countries, but also has influence in western astrology. The Lunar Design Silver Bars commemorate the popular signs of the Chinese lunar calendar with a series of collectible silver pieces that feature an engraving of the year’s representative animal.

Debut of Silver Chinese Lunar Year Products

One of the hottest design concepts of the 21^st century, Chinese Lunar Year bullion gained a steady foothold in the industry in 1996 when the Perth Mint of Australia launched a collectible series of silver and gold coins known as the Lunar Series Collection. Offered with limited mintages figures only during the year that matched the animal from the Zodiac featured on the reverse, this coin series was so popular it spurred the Perth Mint to launch Lunar Series II with fresh designs in 2008.

Since that time, the Royal Mint of England, Royal Canadian Mint, New Zealand Mint, and refineries such as PAMP Suisse have gotten in on the game as well with their own lunar-themed products. PAMP Suisse Silver Lunar Bars are the leading silver bars for sale online that feature Zodiac-themed designs. Similar to their silver bullion coin counterparts, these designs debut during the year matching the animal on the primary surface and feature date marks on the assay cards, a rarity in silver bullion bars.

Designs of Silver Chinese Lunar Bars

Introduced in 2012, the PAMP Suisse Silver Lunar Bars are available with new designs for each year on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The designs in this series include the following concepts:

• 2012 Year of the Dragon: The most popular Chinese mythical beast, the dragon is depicted on one side as it wraps its body around a pole, with the reverse image of that same dragon visible on the other side.
• 2013 Year of the Snake: Wrapping its figure around a bamboo pole, the snake’s body is visible with the head looking forward on one side and on the other side, you can see the remainder of the snake’s body.
• 2014 Year of the Horse: In this design, you are presented with the full body of a powerful stallion standing in front of a tree trunk on one side, and on the other side you can see the same horse with some of its body obscured by the trunk of the tree.
• 2015 Year of the Goat: This was the first bar to feature different angles and elements on each side. The obverse depicts a lone, adult goat standing in front of a bush. On the reverse, you see that behind that bush is a young kid lying behind the bush.
• 2016 Year of the Monkey: On the obverse side of this bar, you’ll find an adult monkey walking along a branch in a tree. Flip it over to the reverse, and now you see that same monkey with its body largely obscured by the trunk of the tree.
• 2017 Year of the Rooster: This design was unique in the series as it featured a rooster at a cliff’s edge looking back over its shoulder, but you see the same image on each side from a different angle. One puts the rooster’s head on the left side of the field, while the other showcases the rooster’s head on the right side of the field.
• 2018 Year of the Dog: This design followed the concept of the Year of the Goat release. On the obverse, an adult retriever sits happily in front of a dog house, while on the reverse you can see the door to the dog house with the adult in the background. In the door of that dog house is a little puppy.
• 2019 Year of the Pig: Following in the footsteps of the 2018 design, the Year of the Pig offers an adult pig on one side of a fence on the obverse. The reverse reveals a treasure chest of coins on the other side of that fence with two piglets visible.

Popular Sizes from PAMP Suisse

PAMP Suisse offers the Silver Chinese Lunar Bars in a variety of sizes, but the most common options include 1 Gram, 1 Troy oz, 10 Troy oz, and 1 Kilo. The packaging for each bar typically includes an Assay card from PAMP Suisse that includes the date mark matching the animal’s place on the Zodiac.

Buying Silver Chinese Lunar Bars at Silver.com

Please feel free to reach out to Silver.com if you have questions when you buy silver bars online. You can call us at 888-989-7223, chat with us live online, or email us directly.