Kashgar's mint operated under perpetually strained conditions throughout the late Qing period — chronic silver shortages, irregular planchet preparation, and almost no meaningful oversight from Beijing meant output varied wildly in quality and weight adherence. These coins were effectively a local monetary instrument answering to the needs of Xinjiang's trade routes into Russian Central Asia rather than to any imperial standard.
Y#23 spans both the Guangxu and Xuantong reign periods, making precise dating by era nearly impossible without supplementary documentation. The Xuantong issues are considerably scarcer, as the dynasty collapsed in 1912 before production ran its full course.
Kashgar's mint operated under perpetually strained conditions throughout the late Qing period — chronic silver shortages, irregular planchet preparation, and almost no meaningful oversight from Beijing meant output varied wildly in quality and weight adherence. These coins were effectively a local monetary instrument answering to the needs of Xinjiang's trade routes into Russian Central Asia rather than to any imperial standard.
Y#23 spans both the Guangxu and Xuantong reign periods, making precise dating by era nearly impossible without supplementary documentation. The Xuantong issues are considerably scarcer, as the dynasty collapsed in 1912 before production ran its full course.