In the last six months, Chinese authorities have tried several criminals who got investors to speculate in valuable metals in false accounts or take part in illegal overseas gold or foreign exchange trading.

The first issue in this series appeared in 2004, with a different image of an elephant, or elephants, featuring on the obverse with each annual release.

However, the bank retained 2014 silver price forecast at $31 an ounce.In the final quarter of 2012, silver prices declined by almost 13% to close the year at $30.34 an ounce.