Specifications
- Denomination
- 1 Yuan
- Years of issue
- 1982
- Composition
- 81% Copper, 19% Nickel
- Weight
- 9.32 g
- Diameter
- 30 mm
- Mintage
- 20000
Melt value: $0.11
The low-mintage 1982 Great Wall 1 yuan — copper-nickel, not brass — with just 20,000 struck.
History
- The Great Wall 1 yuan (KM-18 / Y-27) was issued from 1980 to 1986 as part of the People’s Republic’s second-series circulating coinage, named for the Great Wall motif it carries (Numista; Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
- It is copper-nickel — GreatCollections records the series as 81% copper and 19% nickel — not brass; the brass 1-yuan pieces of 1980 are the separate Winter Olympics and Chinese Olympic Committee commemoratives, so any ‘brass’ attribution for the Great Wall yuan is wrong (GreatCollections; Numista, accessed 2026-09-16)
- The 1982 issue had a mintage of just 20,000, making it one of the series’ low-mintage dates alongside the 1984 (5,750) and the 1986 (660) (Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
- With only 20,000 struck, the 1982 is collected as a low-mintage date of the series rather than as a circulation find (Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
- Numista lists the type at 9.32 g and 30 mm in copper-nickel (Numista, accessed 2026-09-16)
Key dates and varieties
- 1982 — 20,000 mintage, a key low-mintage date of the series (Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
- 1986 — 660 mintage, the series stopper (Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
- 1984 — 5,750 mintage, another low-mintage date (Numisview, accessed 2026-09-16)
Specifications
- Composition: Copper-nickel, 81% copper / 19% nickel (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
- Diameter: 30 mm (Numista; GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
- Weight: 9.32 g (Numista, accessed 2026-09-16); GreatCollections lists 9.3 g for the type (GreatCollections, accessed 2026-09-16).
Collector notes
- It is copper-nickel, not brass and not silver — a magnet, scale (9.32 g) and caliper (30 mm) check defeats most misattributed listings.
- Low-mintage dates like 1982 trade on certified condition; buy NGC/PCGS-graded pieces and verify the certificate number online.
- Do not confuse the Great Wall yuan with the brass 1980 Olympic 1-yuan commemoratives, which are a different KM series.
- Original mint-set packaging adds confidence for the 1982, 1984 and 1986 low-mintage dates.
Market check
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