Maybe the RCM contracts the Chinese to make the originals (to save money) and that's how they are able to release their own versions so quickly! Modern issues are 90% awful. Nearly every aspect is ghastly, from the desperately chosen themes to the design and production, to the marketing, to the poor innocents that buy them. There you are, I've said it now. In Check Your Change I publish a book all about something I have grown to hate. I'm seriously thinking of starting a Boycott Modern Issues campaign, promoting true coin collecting!