planning to standardize the design for future years with the handsome image displayed on the 2001. There were so many complaints, however, (and sales dropped off enough) that in subsequent years the Chinese Mint reverted to creating a unique image for each date.

The drop-off in revised mintage suggests that the 2002 might be a bit scarce, but the big surprise is that the 2002's are among the toughest dates in the entire series to locate. This is corroborated by the small number of coins submitted for certified grading. My own guess is that coming at the end of a 20 year bear market for gold itself, public interest in gold coins had waned and not a lot of the 2002 output was actually sold. Support for this hypothesis can be found in American Eagle coin sales where the lowest mintage years are 2001 and 2002, followed closely by 1995*. One NGC MS-70 and one NGC MS-69 have been sold at auction. No PCGS MS-69's have appeared. (revised 12/1/2008)

*American Eagle mintages taken from http://lynncoins.com/mintages.htm (back)