Watch List notes:

CH'ING:LOT of 54 "red cash " (hong qian) of Guang Xu, 1875-1908 including many varieties, types and denominations. A very interesting study group with some better than average examples of some types, retail value of $300, lot of 54 coins, ex Nicholas Rhodes Collection. The Qing (Manchu) dynasty began casting coins in the far-Western region of Xinjiang (Chinese for "The New Frontier, " sometimes transliterated as "Sinkiang ") in 1760, only one year after the emperor Qian Long's generals conquered the region's capitals of Kashgar and Yarkand. Not only did this primarily Muslim and Turkic-speaking region represent a distinct cultural landscape for the empire, but also a special economic environment. The many differences between the coinages of Xinjiang and the rest of China reflected the special demands of governing this area. The coins cast in Xinjiang were made from copper, rather than the brass used for the rest of the imperial coinage, leading to the nickname "red cash. " These copper coins were initially valued at five of the standard cash, and provided some continuity with the monetary system used under the region's previous rulers, the Dzungar Mongols. Most of the red cash also displayed mint names in the local Turkic language as well as Chinese and occasionally additionally in Manchu. Lying far from the empire's center, Xinjiang was somewhat loosely governed by the court, and this is reflected in the great variety of coin types produced, some of them quite innovative. In spite of frequent rebellions and invasions, the coinage of red cash continued on and off through the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the twentieth.

Estimate: 180- 220 USD