In 618 A.D. the Tang emperor Kao Tsu (618-627 A.D.) issued the _Kai yuan tung pao_, "current money of the inauguration" (_i.e._ of the Tang dynasty, Plate VIII. 5), which gave the coinages of the Far East the form they have retained almost to the present day. From the time of the Sung dynasty (960-1120 A.D.) onwards the legend took the form "current money of" (name of regnal period) (Plate VIII. 8, "current money of (the) Sung Yuan" period, 960-976 A.D.). The Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1278 A.D.) dated their coins on the reverse in regnal years. The Mongols (1260-1341 A.D.) issued but little copper money. An account of their extensive paper currency in the reign of Kublai Khan (1260-1295 A.D.) is given by Marco Polo. The Ming dynasty (1368-1628 A.D.) placed the mint-name on the reverse, while the Ching dynasty (1628-1911) placed the mint-name in Manchu on the reverse (Plate VIII. 7, Shun-che period, 1644-1662 A.D.; Pekin mint). It is only recently that a serious attempt to institute a silver coinage in China has been made. In the nineties of last century, mints with European machinery were instituted in each province, and struck silver and copper coins of European fabric (Plate IX. 1, half-dollar of the late Emperor Kuang Hsü, 1875-1910) for Sze-Chuan. During the last thirty years bilingual silver coins have been issued for the Mohammadan population of Chinese Turkestan (Plate IX. 6, reverse of a five mithkal piece of Kashgar). One of the most remarkable of Chinese coins is the silver rupee recently issued for the Sze-chuan province, bearing the Emperor's head, and copied from the Indian rupee, with which it is destined to compete for Tibetan trade (Plate IX. 3).