400 Wen Sinkiang Provincial Government

Sinkiang in 1920 was effectively a warlord fiefdom operating well outside Peking's reach, and its provincial currency reflected that isolation. The 400 Wen denomination is an unusual unit — not a round figure in any conventional monetary logic — almost certainly calibrated against local commodity pricing or exchange conventions with Russian Turkestan, where copper and silver valuation followed different ratios than in the Chinese interior.

Notes from this authority circulated in an economy where Russian roubles, Chinese copper cash, and provincial paper all traded simultaneously, each at negotiated rates. Confidence in the paper depended almost entirely on which local strongman was currently in control of Ürümqi.