Dirham - Qaidu bin Kashin Andigan

Qaidu ruled the Chagatai Khanate as a de facto independent sovereign in open defiance of Kublai Khan, refusing to attend the 1271 quriltai that legitimized the Yuan dynasty and waging intermittent war against Mongol China for nearly three decades. His coins, struck at Andijan in the Fergana Valley, reflect that political rupture — they circulate authority through Central Asian trade routes entirely outside the Yuan monetary sphere.

Andijan sat at a critical junction of the Silk Road, and Qaidu's silver issues served the commercial economy of Transoxiana during a period when the region was largely cut off from both Ilkhanid and Yuan minting networks.