1 Cash Kaiyuan imitation, Bukhara Sogd, with tamgha

Between the 7th and early 8th centuries, Sogdian merchants and rulers in the Bukhara oasis produced bronze imitations of Tang Chinese cash coins — not as forgeries, but as a pragmatic local currency drawing on the prestige and familiarity of Chinese coinage circulating along the Silk Road. The addition of a tamgha, a dynastic or clan emblem specific to Sogdian ruling families, converts what would otherwise be a copy into a sovereign issue, asserting local authority over the form.

Bukhara Sogd was conquered by the Umayyad general Qutayba ibn Muslim around 709, after which coin production shifted toward Islamic types.