4 Mithqual - Guangxu Ration coinage

Struck at Kashgar mint in the final years of Qing control over Xinjiang, this ration coinage was produced to pay Chinese garrison troops stationed along the volatile Russian and Afghan frontiers — not for general commerce. The term "ration" (餉) in the denomination reflects its military payroll function directly. Kashgar's output was chronically inconsistent; the mint lacked the technical infrastructure of eastern Chinese facilities, and die alignment varies noticeably across surviving pieces.

Russia's expanding influence in Central Asia through the 1890s was the administrative pressure behind regularizing troop payments in the region at all.