Item number: A3745

Reference number: Wang#501、Kann#1149、LM#767、Y#29

Year: AD 1911

Material: Silver

Size: 23.3 x 22.8 mm

Weight: 7.2 g recorded

Manufactured by: Kashgar Mint

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2025

This is a two-mace silver coin mechanically struck in AD 1911, the third year of the Xuantong reign, by the Kashgar Silver Coin Bureau in southern Xinjiang. Modelled on the machine-struck dragon dollars of the Chinese heartland, it represents one of the locally produced small-denomination silver issues of the late Qing frontier.

The obverse bears the inscription Yinyuan erqian (“Silver Coin, Two Mace”) in standard-script Chinese characters, read vertically from top to bottom and from right to left. At the centre of the four characters is a five-pointed star or a five-petalled floral motif. This is enclosed by a beaded circle, outside which appear Chaghatay-Uyghur (commonly termed “Old Uyghur”) inscriptions. To the right is ضرب كاشقر (zarb Kashgar), meaning “struck at Kashgar,” identifying the mint; to the left is ێكى مىشكال (ikki mishkal), meaning “two mace,” indicating the denomination. At the far left is the date ۱۳۲۹, corresponding to AH 1329 (AD 1911). The surrounding inscriptions are enclosed by an additional outer beaded circle, and the rim is furnished with a ring pattern. Based on the placement of the Uyghur-Arabic legends, the two-mace silver coin exists in three varieties: obverse, reverse, and issues without Uyghur inscriptions.

The reverse depicts at its centre a five-clawed coiled dragon, enclosed within a beaded circle. The rim is decorated with an outer ring and an inner beaded circle; between the two circles lies a band divided by a fine line, the inner portion of which is plain, while the outer portion bears a continuous foliate scroll.

In the early Guangxu period, Yakub Beg, with British assistance, established arsenals at Kashgar, Aksu, and Korla, capable of manufacturing rifles, modifying firearms, and producing detonators. After Zuo Zongtang reconquered Xinjiang, he inherited this technological foundation and advocated the establishment of armament workshops at Aksu and Kucha, thus preserving a degree of artisanal and metal-working capacity in southern Xinjiang after the war. In Guangxu 23 (AD 1897), Governor Rao Yingqi memorialised for the strengthening of armament production and established the Xinjiang Machinery Bureau at Ürümqi; it was relocated the following year to Shuimogou, where water-powered machine tools were used to repair military equipment and to cast metal, forming the earliest modern military-industrial system on the frontier. Parallel to these military-industrial reforms were the late-Guangxu initiatives aimed at the “nationalisation of the silver dollar,” led by the Ministry of Revenue and centred on standardised fineness, unified weight, and the replacement of the traditional tael-based system with machine-struck silver dollars. Xinjiang accordingly reorganised its facilities into a Silver Coin Bureau. Yet, because the wider empire continued to rely on the actual weight of silver taels as the basis of valuation, the centrally mandated silver-dollar system was difficult to implement even in the interior; in Xinjiang it was further constrained by extreme distance, high transport costs, and fiscal shortages, making it impossible to secure stable quantities of imported coin. The Xinjiang monetary market had long been influenced by Russian rouble silver coins, Central Asian silver ingots, and local privately struck dollars. In southern Xinjiang, the monetary environment remained pluralistic, with actual circulation governed by the weight of silver rather than by nominal denominations. The central reforms thus failed to take effective root, leaving local administration to rely on whatever silver could be procured for military pay, taxation, and daily transactions.

In Xuantong 3 (AD 1911), the Kashgar Silver Coin Bureau produced a “military-pay five-mace” dragon silver coin modelled on the “military-pay five-mace” coin struck by the Dihua (Ürümqi) Silver Coin Bureau in Guangxu 33 (AD 1907). Minting continued until the second year of the Republic (AD 1913). Concurrently, additional denominations—“Three-Mace Silver Coin” and “Two-Mace Silver Coin”—appear to have served as small-change counterparts to the five-mace issue.

物件編號: A3745

參考書目編號: Wang#501、Kann#1149、LM#767、Y#29

年代: 公元 1911 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 23.3 x 22.8 mm

重量: 紀載為 7.2 g

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龍洋，以機械鑄造的「銀圓二錢」。

錢幣正面幣銘為楷書漢字「銀圓二錢」，由上至下，由右至左對讀，四字中央為五角星或五瓣花。以環繞的珠圈相隔，外側下方則為老維吾爾文(或稱察合台文)幣銘，右側為「ضرب كاشقر」(zarb Kashgar)，即「喀什噶爾造」，紀地，左側為「ىكى مىشكال 」(ikki mishkal)，即「二錢」，紀值。最左側「۱۳۲۹」，紀年為回曆1329，即公元1911年。環列的幣銘外側再環繞以珠圈，幣緣有環。銀圓二錢按照維文的位置可分為正面、背面和無維文三種版型。

錢幣背面中央是一隻五爪蟠龍，以環繞的珠圈相隔。幣緣飾以外環與內珠圈，內外兩道珠圈之間的帶狀區域，以一細環平分，細環內側為空白，外側則有連續的蔓草紋飾。

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。

宣統三年(公元1911年)，新疆喀什銀圓局仿照迪化銀圓局於光緒三十三年(公元1907年)鑄造的「餉銀五錢」銀幣，製作喀什「餉銀五錢」龍紋銀幣，直至民國二年(公元1913年)。同時另有「銀圓叁錢」、「銀圓二錢」，似作為「餉銀五錢」之小額輔幣。