1 Sar Type 2

Sinkiang's provincial mints operated in near-total isolation from the central Chinese monetary system, producing silver coinage calibrated to local trade weights rather than national standards. The sar — a regional unit derived from the tael system — persisted in Xinjiang well into the Republican period precisely because commerce there ran on Central Asian conventions, not those of coastal China. The Aksu, Kashgar, and Kucha mints each produced recognizable variants, and distinguishing the Type 2 from Type 1 comes down to specific die differences documented in Kann's reference work.