The Western Xia was a Tangut-led Chinese dynasty which ruled over what are now the northwestern Chinese subdivisions of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwest Inner Mongolia, and southernmost Outer Mongolia from 1032 until 1227 when they were destroyed by the Mongols. The country was established by the Tangut people;^[1][2] likewise its earliest coins were escribed with Tangut characters, while later they would be written in Chinese. Opposed to Song dynasty coins that often read top-bottom-right-left, Western Xia coins exclusively read clockwise. Despite the fact that coins had been cast for over a century and a half, very little were actually produced and coins from Western Xia are a rarity today.^[3] Although the Western Xia cast their own coins barter remained widely used.^[4]

Originally from 1053 until 1068 the inscription of its cash coins were exclusively written in the Tangut script, and between 1068 and 1206 coins were cast with both Tangut and Chinese inscriptions, but after 1206 only Chinese characters were used. Compared to Liao dynasty coinage, coins from Western Xia were cast in superior quality, though only bronze and iron coins produced between 1149 and 1193 were cast in high quantities.^[5] The calligraphy of Western Xia period cash coins are typically regarded as being of fine quality.^[6]

After Western Xia was annexed by the Mongols, Tangut inscriptions appeared only on a single Yuan dynasty coin.^[7]

Following the establishment of the Western Xia state, the Tangut people, in an effort to revive their original ethnic and national culture, had rejected both Chinese characters and Chinese fashion.^[8][9] The Tangut people had soon created an indigenous writing system, this writing system was exclusively used on the earlier Western Xia era cash coins.^[8][9] These early Tangut cash coins had inscriptions like śjɨj ljo ljɨ̣ dzjɨj (𗼃𗼕𘏨𘔭) and tha nej ljɨ̣ dzjɨj (𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭).^[8] The Tangut script inscription on these early Western Xia cash coins always read clockwise (top-right-bottom-left), with all of these coins having inscriptions that translate into English as "Precious Coin of the" followed by the reign title.^[10] Cash coins with Tangut inscriptions are known to have been produced during six different reign periods, but it's possible that more variants have been produced.^[10]

Cash coins with Tangut inscriptions have been discovered in the modern era such as the Zhengde Baoqian type in the year 1999.^[11]

During the Qianyou period (1139–1193) of the reign of Emperor Renzong the political and military stability as well as the growing economy in Western Xia had allowed for the country to prosper. Emperor Renzong would hold education in a high esteem and was responsible for the establishment of schools including an Imperial Academy.^[8][9] Emperor Renzong had further established an imperial examination system in the style of that of the Chinese Empire.^[8][9] During the Qianyou era the Tangut government had also gained greater respect for both Confucian philosophy and the culture of the Song dynasty.^[8][9] Much art from the Western Xia Empire, including its coinage was largely based on that from China.^[12]

This era also saw the production of Song dynasty-style cash coins, these Song dynasty-style cash coins also followed the Song tradition of casting “Matched Coins” (對錢, duì qián, 對品, duì pǐn, 和合錢, hé hé qián), where two or more different Chinese calligraphy styles were used on cash coins that had the same Chinese era title (or reign period).^[8][9]

These Chinese calligraphic styles included clerical script, regular script, running script, grass script, and rarely seal script.^[8][9]

The cash coins produced under the Western Xia were cast in either Tangut or Chinese.^[13]

Coins with Tangut inscriptions:^{[14][15][lower-alpha 1]}

Coins with Chinese inscriptions:

Many Chinese and other Oriental coin catalogues through the centuries had documented the cash coins that were cast by the Western Xia Empire to be in regular script or running scripts but not in seal script.^[8] This changed in September of the year 1984 with the discovery of a seal script Guangding Yuanbao cash coin and again in 2012 with the discovery of a seal script Qianyou Yuanbao cash coin.^[8] While a multitude of seal script Guangding Yuanbao cash coins have been discovered, only a single Qianyou Yuanbao cash coin has been known to exist.^[8]

Today these newly discovered variants have been added to newer Chinese coin catalogues as variants of the "matched cash coins" of the Western Xia Empire.^[8] In the modern era the discovery of a new Chinese coin variety is a rare occurrence to happen, so the discovery of the seal script Qianyou Yuanbao has caused a great amount of excitement among Chinese cash coinage collectors.^[8]

• In the year 1972 a Da'an Baoqian (大安寶錢, 𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭) cash coin with Tangut script was found at the Liao Shangjing site, Lindong, Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia.^[17]

• History of Chinese currency
• Zhou dynasty coinage
• Ancient Chinese coinage
• Liao dynasty coinage
• Southern Song dynasty coinage
• Jin dynasty coinage (1115–1234)
• Yuan dynasty coinage
• Ming dynasty coinage
• Qing dynasty coinage