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100 - Wu, Chengen's 520th Birthday
| Issuer | People's Republic of China |
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| Year | |
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| Size | 155 x 80 mm |
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| Obverse description | Portrait of Wu Chengen at right, rendered in fine intaglio style against a guilloche underprint. Central vignette illustrates a dynamic scene from Journey to the West with figures in combat including Sun Wukong with staff and celestial maidens in flowing red robes. Denomination 100 appears at upper right and lower left. |
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| Obverse lettering | 中国四大名着-《西游记》 吴承恩纪念 (Translation: One of the four famous Chinese novels - "Journey to the West" Wu Chengen Memorial.) |
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| Comments |
Wu Cheng'en, the Ming dynasty author credited with writing Journey to the West, was born around 1500 in Huai'an, Jiangsu — the "around" matters, because the 520th anniversary figure rests on a birth year that remains contested among scholars. Commemorative dating on Chinese issues has occasionally anchored itself to a convenient round number rather than a settled historical record.
China's adoption of polymer substrate for commemorative issues accelerated after 2000, with the material preferred for its durability in collector packaging and resistance to the humidity common in southern Chinese storage conditions. This is one of relatively few Chinese polymer commemoratives tied to a literary figure rather than a dynastic or revolutionary occasion.