Item number: A3741

Reference number: LM#757、Y#27.2

Year: AD 1911

Material: Silver

Size: 31.0 x 31.5 mm

Manufactured by: Kashgar Mint

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2025

This piece is a mechanically struck silver coin of the denomination five mace, produced in AD 1911 (Xuantong 3) by the Kashgar Mint in southern Xinjiang, which, in imitation of mints in China Proper, issued the type known as “Xuantong Yuanbao”. During the Xuantong reign the Kashgar Mint successively produced three categories of silver coinage: the Great Qing Yinbi, the Xuantong Yinbi, and the Xuantong Yuanbao.

The obverse bears the inscription “Xuantong Yuanbao” in regular script, read vertically from top to bottom and right to left, with a five-petalled rosette placed at the centre. A beaded circle separates this inner inscription from an outer ring, at the top of which appears the Chinese inscription “Kashe zao” (“struck at Kashgar”). The value “Wu qian” (“five mace”), with “Wu” written in formal script, is arranged vertically on the left and right. At the lower part of the outer ring appear inscriptions in old Uyghur written in Arabic script: on the right “ضرب كاشقر” (zarb Kāshghar), meaning “struck at Kashgar”, indicating the place of minting; and on the left “بەش مىشكال” (besh mishkal), meaning “five mace”, indicating the value. To the far left is the date “۱۳۲۹”, corresponding to AH 1329, that is, AD 1911. The inscriptional rings are enclosed by an additional beaded border, and the coin has a raised rim. According to the central decorative motif, Xuantong Yuanbao coins from Kashgar may be classified into three varieties: a five-pointed star, a five-petalled rosette, and a central dot.

The design of this Xuantong Yuanbao coin largely follows the style of the Xuantong Silver Coin but with minor modifications in the Chinese characters. The “Xuantong Yuanbao” coins can be subdivided into three types based on the central design: “five-pointed star,” “five-petal flower,” and “circular dots.”

From the early Guangxu reign, Yakub Beg, with British assistance, established armament workshops in Kashgar, Aksu and Korla, capable of producing rifles, modifying firearms and manufacturing detonators. After the Qing reconquest of Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang sought to preserve and utilise this technical base, advocating the establishment of arsenals in Aksu and Kuqa, thereby maintaining in southern Xinjiang a reservoir of craftsmen and metalworking skills. In AD 1897 (Guangxu 23), the Xinjiang governor Rao Yingqi successfully memorialised for an expansion of military production, leading to the creation of the Xinjiang Machinery Bureau in Ürümqi, which was relocated the following year to Shuimogou, where water-powered machine tools were used for repairing arms and for metalworking, making it the earliest modern mechanised military facility in the region. In parallel with these military-industrial developments, the Qing government undertook a series of currency reforms in the late Guangxu period aimed at the “nationalisation of the silver dollar”, including the standardisation of the silver dollar by the Ministry of Revenue, the unification of fineness and weight, and the replacement of the traditional tael-based system with machine-struck coinage. Xinjiang accordingly transformed its mints into silver-dollar bureaus. Yet because the wider empire continued to rely predominantly on the tael of fine silver as the basic unit of account, the new silver-dollar system proved difficult to implement even in China Proper. In Xinjiang, its application was further constrained by distance, high transport costs and persistent fiscal limitations, preventing the steady importation of standardised silver dollars. Long accustomed to the circulation of Russian rouble silver coins, Central Asian silver ingots and locally cast silver pieces, the markets of southern Xinjiang remained characterised by monetary pluralism, with actual transactions determined by the weight of silver rather than by nominal value. As the central reforms failed to take firm effect, local administration, including the payment of military stipends, tax receipts and routine commercial exchange, continued to rely largely on silver obtainable within the region.

物件編號: A3741

參考書目編號: LM#757、Y#27.2

年代: 公元 1911 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 31.0 x 31.5 mm

製造地: 喀什銀圓局

來源: 福君錢幣 2025

這是一枚宣統三年(公元1911年)，新疆南部的喀什銀圓局仿效漢地，以機械鑄造的「宣統元寶」，僅有五錢一種面額。喀什銀圓局在宣統年間，先後鑄造大清銀幣、宣統銀幣和宣統元寶三種銀幣。

錢幣正面幣銘為楷書漢字「宣統元寶」，由上至下，由右至左對讀，四字中央為五瓣花。以環繞的珠圈相隔，外側上方為漢字「喀什造」，左右兩側由右至左為漢字「伍錢」紀值，「伍」字為大寫。外側下方則為老維吾爾文幣銘，右側為「ضرب كاشقر」(zarb Kashgar)，即「喀什噶爾造」，紀地，左側為「بەش مىشكال」(besh mishkal)，即「五錢」，紀值。最左側「۱۳۲۹」，紀年為回曆1329，即公元1911年。環列的幣銘外側再以環繞的珠圈相隔，幣緣有環。宣統元寶按照正中央的紋飾能分為「五角星、五瓣花和圓點」三種版型。

錢幣背面中央是一隻被珠圈包圍的五爪蟠龍。最外圍的珠圈和實心圓之間，則有連續的花草紋飾作為裝飾。

光緒初年，阿古柏在英國援助下於喀什、阿克蘇、庫爾勒建立兵工廠，具備製造步槍、改裝火器與生產雷管的能力；左宗棠收復新疆後承襲此技術基礎，主張在阿克蘇、庫車設局製造軍器，使南疆在戰後仍保有一定的工匠與金屬加工能力。光緒二十三年(公元1897)，新疆巡撫饒應祺奏准加強軍械生產，在烏魯木齊設立新疆機器局，次年遷至水磨溝，利用水力機床修製軍械並具備鑄造能力，形成邊疆最早的近代軍工體系。與軍工建設並行的是清廷在光緒後期一系列旨在「銀元國家化」的貨幣改革，包括度支部推動的銀元標準化、統一成色重量、以機器鑄造取代傳統銀兩制度，新疆也隨之改制為銀圓局；但由於全國仍普遍以「銀兩實重」為計價基準，中央頒行的銀元制度在內地推行不易，在新疆則更受距離遙遠、運輸成本高與財政緊縮的限制，難以形成穩定的輸入量。新疆市場長期受俄國盧布銀幣、中亞銀錠及地方私鑄銀元影響，南疆貨幣環境呈多元並存，實際流通仍依賴白銀重量而非法定面值。中央改革未能有效落地，使地方政務在軍餉支付、稅收與民間交易上多依賴本地可取得的白銀來源。