2012 Chinese Panda Silver Coin . Many experts have long noted that Chinese Panda coins are one of the worst investments available amongst government issued coins. In my opinion this is no longer the case despite growing mintages of 2010, 2011, 2012 releases. Premiums are much higher yet we can also see that premiums are made for the sale of Panda coins through coin dealers, eBay, APMEX and others. Remember, there are around 1.4 Billion Chinese with growing funds to purchase gold and silver coins. The fact that prices for these coins are high show the demand. Despite the premiums and higher mintages - demand is skyrocketing in the world's largest gold and silver market. (Chinese are not buying Eagles, Maples or Krugerrands my friends. They buy Pandas, making the Chinese Panda the world's most sought after government issued precious metals coin.
Always buy from a good dealer and weigh/test your coins. The copies that are out there are of very high quality. It's not just the Chinese coins either. There are many American Eagles in the hands of U.S. citizens that are actually fakes from China. (Mostly eBay). I always buy from an authorized dealer and my coins weigh out at 31 grams.I'm sure in China those are the preferred bullion coins, but here in America I would look at any Chinese coins with the highest level of skepticism because of all the fakes that come out of China.