50 Cash - Xianfeng Zhongbao, Ili

The Ili mint, established in the Xinjiang garrison town of Ghulja, was one of several frontier mints the Qing opened specifically to supply cash coins to remote military garrisons without the logistical burden of shipping specie from interior provinces. The Xianfeng reign's inflated cash denominations — of which the 50-cash was among the more practical multiples — were a direct fiscal response to the catastrophic drain on imperial finances caused by the Taiping Rebellion. Standard one-cash production simply couldn't meet military payroll demands.

Ili examples are scarcer than their Board of Revenue Beijing counterparts, with documented output from the garrison mint running only through a narrow window before production priorities shifted.