Aksu's Republican Era Cast Ten Cash: An Analysis of Two Different Types

Aksu's Republican Era Cast Ten Cash: An Analysis of Two Different Types

Introduction

Sinkiang for much of the Qing Dynasty struck cast coins, in the hong qian or red cash format for much of the Imperial era. These red cash are the hallmark cast and holed copper coins that was used in China for millennia; however, the Sinkiang issues were special not only because of its color, a reddish hue because of the different copper deposits in that isolated and rural area, but also because of its odd denominations of say, 4, 5, or 8 cash. This latter point is partly a result of its currency system that was different from Qing China's other provinces and thus, resulted in a unique system and coins. 

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Sinkiang, which was now a province as the Qing reconquered it a second time, began to reform its copper hong qian system in a way through the introduction of machine struck---or milled---coinage. This term of machine struck or milled coinage may appear out of place because China in 1889-90 would adopt milled coinage for general circulation, with Zhang Zhidong, the Viceroy of Liangguang's orders to strike copper and silver coins from the Kwangtung (Guangdong/Canton) mint. Subsequently, other provinces would adopt these milled copper cash (typically in 10 cash, though other denominations like 1, 2, 5, and 20 cash) for their general circulation from the 1890s all the way to 1911. Within the political context, these milled coins for general circulation began with the reign of the penultimate Qing emperor, Kuang Hsu, who reigned from 1875-1908.

On the other hand, Sinkiang Province's advent of milled copper coinage began during the reign of the last emperor of Qing China, Hsuan Tung, who ruled from 1909-1911. There was three distinct types, where the earliest one is an undated type from 1909, with no dating legend above the dragon's head. Then the following two types are from 1910, with the cyclical date 庚戌 geng xu, and 1911, with the cyclical date 辛亥 xin hai. I will discuss these, relatively few, Imperial types in a upcoming blog post. We are readily able to identify them by the presence of the five-clawed imperial dragon that would be a unified design for nearly all provincial and centrally issued coinage across Qing China. 

With this cursory overview of both cast and milled coinage during the Qing Dynasty, the focus of this post is to continue this discussion of Sinkiang hong qian but from the succeeding Republic of China or the Republican Period, which spanned from 1911 to 1949. One important aspect when looking at Sinkiang coins, regardless of copper or silver, is to bear the regional designation in mind. This term was brought up and is a theme of analysis from my previous posts, as before we talk about the coin, we need to sort it by the region of issue. For Sinkiang during the Republican era, there was no silver or copper coins struck in say, Kucha or Yarkand, which were prolific in striking the 1870s era half miscal or five fen of the Qing Dynasty; instead, we are narrowed into the three mints of Kashgar, Tihwa, and Aksu, while considering the "General Ciruclation/Issue" classification for copper coins with no regional designation. 

With this introduction, today's post will focus on two copper cash coins from Sinkiang Province's Aksu region. Aksu or Aqsu, or a cheng as the inscription is found on certain Qing "Mid-Period" silver issues, is located in the northern edge of the Tarim Basin and is near the middle of the Sinkiang region. Also numismatically, the coins of Aksu---silver or copper---are considerably scarcer than their Kashgar or Tihwa counterparts. More on that later. 

Outline 

In this post, I will discuss two distinct types of the Aksu cast 10 cash. These two pieces are distinct because of their different Krause designations, which is a great starting point. We will then analyze these pieces with more in-depth Chinese works. Lastly, these two coins are from my personal collection. 

1. Y 37.1 large flan  Specimen A
2. Y 37.2 small flan Specimen B

Interestingly, these coins are not milled but cast! Thus, with some of my basic research on the Republican types these Aksu issues are the only ones cast and not milled. Moreover, as I will discuss later, Aksu would be a mint that would produce very few copper cash in their cast and milled forms.  

General Discussion

Both of these cast coins have a value of 10 cash in the hong qian or red cash system, which is a system unique to Sinkiang province. As I mentioned before, this use of hong qian goes past the Republican era and begins during the early stages of the Qing Dynasty in their cast coins. 

Let us look into the similarities between these two pieces. One key example is their legends and design style. The obverse has the top legend of 新疆阿造 (right to left) or xin jiang a zao where the "a" is short for a cheng 阿城. When translated, this legend means made in Sinkiang's Aksu, or more completely, made in Sinkiang Province's Aksu region. The bottom legend (right to left) has 當紅錢十文 or dang hong qian shi wen. This means roughly, "this coin has a value of ten red cash." Lastly, the central four characters are red top bottom, right left. They are 中華民國 or zhong hua min guo which means the Republic of China. The reverse is also a shared feature for these two distinct coin types. We have the crossed flags with five bars called the "Five Races Under One Union" flag, a symbol of the Republican China with harmonious relations between the Han, Hui, Tibetan, Manchu, and Mongols ethnicities. Lastly, we have some Turkic legends on the top and the bottom of the crossed flags, though the writing differs, which will be one facet of our analysis.

Apparently, to Krause, these are the only two specimens they attribute, which is according to their flan size. Y 37.1 is 32mm in their books, while Y 37.2 is 29mm and the former commands a slightly higher catalog value than the latter, with differences ranging from 10 dollars to 20 dollars. However, in this post, I will attempt to go deeper than these two general attributions. 

According to Ma Tak Wo in his The Struck Copper Coins of Sinkiang, published in 1988, there are total of six varieties of this cast Aksu piece with catalog references of M40.0 to M40.5. Also, which this serves as a digression, there was a milled Aksu type in the 10 cash denomination, though this is highly rare. It shares a design very similar with this cast type and Ma lists eight varieties from M41.0 to M41.7. Going back to this cast type, Ma notes that five of these cast coins were struck during 1912-13, the first and second years of the Republic, and notes this conversion to the Hejira dates of AH 1330-1311. There is the sixth and last type which is dated "AH 1332) or the third year of the Republic and converted to 1914 on the Gregorian calendar. However, the above and below-flag inscriptions for this later, 1914 type is noticeably different from the other five and is rarer than its earlier counterparts (i.e., rarity of "1" instead of "2"). Altogether, in terms of dating, we can conclude that these pieces were struck in the early few years of the Republic and aligns well with Krause's attribution for Y 37.1 and Y 37.2, which marks both types with "ND (1912)." 

In terms of variety analysis for these six coins, Ma notes the following.

1. M40.0
• Obverse: large central dot, large Chinese characters of 中華民國
• Reverse: different style of 5 bar flag from that of Kashgar's copper milled issues
• Sand cast!
• Rarity: 2
2. M40.1
• Obverse: Small characters are relatively smaller than that of M40.0
• Reverse: Same as M40.0
• Sand cast!
• Rarity: 2
3. M40.2
• Obverse: Comparatively smaller dots for the outer circle, Chinese characters are even smaller
• Reverse: Relatively smaller Turkic inscriptions above and below the crossed flags
• Sand cast!
• Rarity: 2
4. M40.3
• Obverse: The Chinese inscription on the outer ring (i.e., top and bottom legends) are even and spaced instead of being divided into upper and lower portions. (This is a new distinction compared to the preceding types). 
• Reverse: Relatively smaller Turkic inscriptions above and below the crossed flags
• Sand cast!
5. M40.4
• Obverse: The Chinese inscriptions on the outer ring (i.e., top and bottom legends) are not as evenly spread, compared to M40.
• Reverse: The same as M40.3.
• Rarity: 2
• Sand cast!
6. M40.5
• Obverse: Writing in different style
• Reverse: Top and bottom legends are inherently different, with more writing (such as the indication of the AH date). The date of AH 1332 is put at the bottom of the crossed flag design.
• Sand cast but the mold is imitating the style of M41, which is a milled type. In other words, the milled die of M41, which is the dated AH 1332 type and highly rare, is the same as the cast-sand mold. 
• Dated, from AH 1332 which is approximately 1914. 
• This can be considered separate from M40.0 to M40.4.

Specimen Analysis

Specimen A

Specimen A

Aksu (Undated); 10 Cash cast Krause Y 37.1; F-Crude.

ex. Bob Reis 

Specimen A (Y 37.1) is the large flan type according to Krause. My specimen is at 33mm on average and the largest distance being 34mm (given its uneven, cast nature). The weight is .60oz, which is 17.00g. We see that this is a about Fine (F) piece, with original patina or a greenish color of a slightly oxidized copper and the natural effects of casting from a sand mold. Thus, we can see the uneven, bumpy, and not necessarily porous surface. On the obverse, we can discern key characters like 阿 and even complex characters like 疆. The central characters are clear for what it is as cast piece. The flan is quite circular, though there is some extrusion at the bottom of the obverse, which gives this coin character. The overall same nature can be said for the reverse, where we can clearly see the flags and its bars, along with in a quite sharp degree, the Turkic characters above and below the crossed flags. Lastly, the edge is not smooth or reeded; instead, it is a bit bumpy, with some inconsistencies, as it was put in a cast mold. Truly unique!

All in all, the green oxidation on the depth surfaces and the reddish brown typical of Sinkiang’s red copper makes this a favorite cash coin of mine! 

For the translation of the Turkic legends above and below the flag, they are as follows, in a Romanized form from one of my Chinese sources. The Turkic on top of the crossed flags has "Jong Ha Min Koi" which refers to zhong hua min guo or the Republic of China (stated clearly in Chinese in the obverse's center). The Turkic at the bottom of the crossed flags have "On Dachinlik Mis Pul" and the Hejira date. This can be translated as "this coin has a value of 10 red cash." Note, that the upper Turkic should be read backwards. 

In terms of variety analysis, I have marked this coin to be M40.0, where we have a large, central dot that is empty on the obverse. Moreover, the Chinese characters of 中華民國 are larger when compared to other types. This Specimen A has a rarity of 2 (from 10-1 and three additional levels higher of "rare," "highly rare," and "super rare"). 

References: Krause Y 37.1, Xinjiang Numismatics 510 variety. 

Specimen B

Specimen A

Aksu (Undated); 10 Cash cast Krause Y 37.2; F-Crude.

ex. Anthony Hui

Specimen B (Y 37.2) is the small flan type according to Krause. For my specimen, the diameter ranges from 30.8 (shortest) to 31.5mm (given its uneven, cast nature). We clearly see the difference between Specimen B and Specimen A. The weight of this piece is noticeably lighter, at .54oz, which is 15.309g. This piece is also in Fine (F) condition, with original patina or a greenish color of a slightly oxidized copper and the natural effects of casting from a sand mold. From this, we can see not only the greenish underlying surfaces but also how uneven and bumpy it is. However, the surface is not noticebaly porous, which makes this a better specimen for the type. On the obverse, we can discern key characters like 阿 and even complex characters like 疆 just like Specimen A, when held at an angle with the light. The central characters are clear for what it is as cast piece. The flan is quite circular, and unlike Specimen 1, there are no extrusions (i.e, a jagged/uneven rim). The overall same nature can be said for the reverse, where we can clearly see the flags and its bars, along with in a quite sharp degree, the Turkic characters above and below the crossed flags. When comparing with Specimen A, I can argue that I see the characters at a more defined style and is more legible for identification. Lastly, the edge is not smooth or reeded; instead, it is a bit bumpy, with some inconsistencies, as it was put in a cast mold. This latter point is evident by how it is a bit straight/flat on one part of the edge. All in all, the green oxidation on the depth surfaces and the reddish brown typical of Sinkiang’s red copper makes this a favorite cash coin of mine! 

For the translation of the Turkic legends above and below the flag, they are as follows, in a Romanized form from one of my Chinese sources. The Turkic on top of the crossed flags has "Jong Ha Min Koi" which refers to zhong hua min guo or the Republic of China (stated clearly in Chinese in the obverse's center). The Turkic at the bottom of the crossed flags have "On Dachinlik Mis Pul" and the Hejira date. This can be translated as "this coin has a value of 10 red cash." Note, that the upper Turkic should be read backwards. 

In terms of variety analysis, I have marked this coin to be M40.4, where we have a filled central dot (unlike M40.3 with its open dot) on the obverse. Moreover, the Chinese characters of 中華民國 are smaller when compared to other types. Lastly, a basic and important observation is that the Turkic characters above the flag is noticeably different for Specimen A and Specimen B, and that this most basic visible difference is noted by Krause. Thus, when generally trying to classify if this type of cast coin is 37.1 or 37.2, we must look at the upper Turkic legends. I have placed it below and zoomed, for better visibility and reference. Nevertheless, this Specimen B also has a rarity of 2 (from 10-1 and three additional levels higher of "rare," "highly rare," and "super rare"). 

References: Krause Y 37.2, Xinjiang Numismatics 509 variety. 

Key Differences and Observations

Specimen A: The connection between the two lines  for this upper Turkic legend.

Specimen B: The disconnect/two lines  for this upper Turkic legend.

Again, to summarize some key observations for Specimen A and Specimen B, definitely look at the following:

• The upper portion Turkic legend on the reverse. 
• The sizes and weight. 
• The central Chinese character zhong hua min guo on the obverse. Are they small or big?
• The central dot on the obverse. It is filled or open?