Consumers claimed that the Lunar New Year coins with snake themes were marked up and resold by the scalpers after being occupied and redeemed through their quota. Lawyers said it might be illegal.

Recently, consumer Mr. Wang complained to The Paper’s public interactive platform, “Service Pai” (https://tousu.thepaper.cn), that since the预约兑换 of the 2025 Lunar New Year coins (Snake Year commemorative coins and bills) began on January 3, there has been a phenomenon of coin dealers organizing multiple people to occupy and redeem at the same time at the华夏银行’s commemorative coin redemption site in Changchun, which makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to queue up and enjoy the equal rights they should have.

After receiving Mr. Wang’s complaint, The Paper has called the Changchun Branch of Huaxia Bank several times but has not received a response as of press time. Reporters noticed that the phenomenon of coin dealers occupying and redeeming commemorative coins mentioned by Mr. Wang has occurred at multiple banks, and someone has already raised the price of commemorative coins several times. In response to this, lawyers believe that if Mr. Li’s report is true, the coin dealers’动机不纯in redeeming commemorative coins has already violated the law.

Complaint: Coin dealers occupy and redeem Lunar New Year coins

Mr. Wang introduced that he recently learned that the People’s Bank of China issued 100 million Snake Year Lunar New Year coins with a face value of 10 yuan each and 100 million Snake Year commemorative bills with a face value of 20 yuan each. He wanted to go to the bank to exchange some. But since January 3, he found that there was a phenomenon of coin dealers organizing group redemption at Huaxia Bank in Changchun. Two or three people with backpacks organized about 40 to 50 people in the bank lobby, including more than ten elderly people each holding five ID cards. After completing the redemption, these people directly handed over the commemorative coins to the organizers.

“I felt it was strange and asked around, and found out that they were organized through a WeChat group, and each person could get a certain reward after redemption, which is not a personal redemption behavior,” Mr. Wang said. These people occupy the first few dozen redemption numbers every day, and the two windows in the lobby are occupied by their team. Ordinary citizens who want to normally redeem cannot get the Lunar New Year coins.

Mr. Wang said that this phenomenon of occupying and redeeming has been going on for several days, and it is getting worse. Coin dealers collect other people’s identity information through WeChat groups, use multiple预约资格to redeem a large number of commemorative coins into the hands of a few people, “I think they just want to sell them at higher prices.”

The现象: Redemption phenomenon occurs at multiple banks, and Lunar New Year coins are sold at double the price

On the first day of redemption for the Snake Year commemorative bill on January 3, 2025, the face value of the Snake coin is 10 yuan and the Snake bill is 20 yuan. Each person can预约20套, which means that each ID card can预约up to 20 Snake coins (200 yuan) and 20 Snake bills (400 yuan).

After receiving Mr. Wang’s complaint, The Paper called Huaxia Bank (Changchun Branch) several times but has not received a response as of press time.

The Paper also found on a complaint platform that what Mr. Wang encountered is not an isolated case but has occurred at multiple banks. Some complainants said that it is very difficult for ordinary people to预约the commemorative bills of Agricultural Bank of China, but there are yellow cows selling them in bundles outside the bank; some also claimed that at a Post Office Savings Bank, a yellow cow carried a file full of ID cards specifically for collecting commemorative coins and their behavior was very brazen.

In addition, according to a report by Beijing Youth Daily, before the start of the redemption period, the Snake Year commemorative coins and bills in the secondary market have been hyped up, with a maximum溢价比of up to 150% on the first day of redemption. Some consumers said: “After queuing for more than an hour, as soon as I walked out of the bank, someone was offering to buy them at 40 yuan each, so I sold ten without hesitation.” In addition, reporters on social platforms found many complaints about “yellow cows” disrupting the预约order of Snake Year Lunar New Year coins (bills), and many netizens are considering whether to sell them at higher prices, usually around twice the original price.

Lawyers: Deliberate selling of Lunar New Year coins that grab public resources may be illegal

Zhao Liangshan, a senior partner at Shaanxi Hengda Law Firm and a well-known public welfare lawyer, believes that