5 Mithqual - Guangxu Kashgar, Wu Qian

Kashgar's provincial mint operated under perpetual logistical strain in the 1890s — silver supply was irregular, die-cutting was done locally rather than from Beijing-supplied tools, and the results show it. Coins of this type are notorious for inconsistent planchet preparation and off-center strikes, not as isolated errors but as a systemic condition of production. Wu Qian, the supervising official whose name appears on the issue, oversaw minting during a period when Xinjiang's integration into the Qing administrative structure remained administratively incomplete despite the province's formal establishment in 1884.

The mithqual weight standard derives from Central Asian Islamic coinage tradition, a deliberate concession to local trade practice in a region where Russian-influenced tenge and Afghan coinage circulated alongside Qing issues.