A set of gold and silver commemorative coins celebrating a great classical Chinese novel, Dream of the Red Mansions, is to be issued on July 28, the People's Bank of China announced Friday.

The set of six includes one gold and five silver coins, all featuring a portrait of Cao Xueqin, author of the novel.

The reverse side features designs drawn from well-known scenes in the novel.

The half-ounce gold coin has a face value of 200 yuan (about US$24.18), with 8,000 to be issued; each of the four one-ounce silver coins has a face value of 10 yuan (about US$1.2) with 38,000 to be issued; and the five-ounce silver coin has a face value of 50 yuan (US$6.05), with 11,800 to be issued.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2003)