2 Mithqual - Guangxu Ration coinage, with Arabic on obverse, uncircled dragon, type 1, silver

Sinkiang's ration coinage was never intended for general commerce. These pieces were struck to pay Muslim soldiers and laborers in the far northwest, where Qing authority was perpetually contested and Beijing's standard currency held little practical weight. The Arabic script reflects a deliberate accommodation of the region's Uyghur-speaking population — a rare concession in Qing monetary policy, and one that distinguishes this series from virtually every other provincial issue of the period.

The uncircled dragon variant on Y#4 predates the bordered type, placing it among the earlier die configurations from the Aksu or Kashgar mint operations. Sinkiang maintained multiple mint facilities simultaneously, and attributing specific strikes to individual facilities remains an open problem in the series.