CHINA. Tang dynasty, Dai Zong, 766-779. Cash (Bronze, 23 mm, 3.30 g), Dali Yuanbao. 大 / 寶 - 曆 / 元 (Da Li yuan bao), written from top to bottom and right to left. Rev. Blank. Fisher's Ding 702-3. Hartill 14.130. Very rare. Some areas of weakness and deposits, otherwise, very fine.


The Dali Yuanbao was a distinctive regional coinage issued in the far western reaches of the Tang Empire during the Dali era (766–779). Found predominantly around Kucha in present-day Xinjiang, these coins are absent from the official Tang records and are generally believed to have been struck locally by the Anxi Protectorate after the An Lushan Rebellion, when the region had become increasingly isolated from the imperial heartland.

Together with the later Jianzhong Tongbao, they provide remarkable evidence of how Tang authorities in Central Asia maintained a functioning monetary system despite their growing political and geographical isolation.