The People's Bank of China began on Friday issuing a set of new commemorative coins to mark the coming Chinese lunar year of the Monkey.
The set includes six gold coins and six silver, the central bank said.
The coins bear the designs and pictures of the Great Wall and monkey-shaped paper-cuts, a tradition of the Chinese to celebrate the lunar new year, also called the Spring Festival.
The central bank has issued special coins for lunar new years annually in recent years. In China, people use a dozen animals to mark different years on a rotating basis.
(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2003)
