This impressive 3 oz silver coin is the first issue in the "Haiyantang Zodiac Fountain" series. The coin has been struck in black proof stamp and is decorated with a polished bronze insert. Supplied in a special case with a certificate of authenticity. Limited mintage: only 500 pieces worldwide. Haiyantang is the building of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. In front of it is the famous fountain, decorated with, among other things, twelve bronze statues representing the Chinese zodiac signs. The statues, designed by Giuseppe Castiglione for Emperor Qianlong, are said to have spouted water from their mouths to tell time. The bronze cast heads of the stone statues were among the treasures looted when the building was destroyed by British and French expeditionary forces in 1860, during the Second Opium War.