Kucha coinage  Kucha coinage was produced in the Kingdom of Kucha, a Buddhist state located in present-day Kucha County, Xinjiang. There are five known types of Kucha cash coins based on the Chinese Wu Zhu's. These coins are usually characterized by their diminutive size and thin shape. They are generally believed to have been produced between the years 265 and 589. The Kingdom of Kucha was first recorded during the Han dynasty and was later annexed by the Tang. During its existence, it was a prominent player on the Silk Road. From around the third or fourth century, the Kingdom of Kucha began to manufacture the Wu Zhu cash coins inspired by the diminutive and devalued Wu Zhu's of the post-Han dynasty era in Chinese history. It is very likely that the cash coins produced in Kucha predate the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) and that the native production of coins stopped sometime after the year 621 when the Wu Zhu cash coins were discontinued in China proper. There are five known types of Kucha cash coins based on the Chinese Wu Zhu's. These coins are usually characterized by their diminutive size and thin shape. Four types tend to have no inscriptions at all, while one type of coin is the "Han Gui bilingual Wu Zhu coin" (漢龜二體五銖錢, "hàn guī èr tǐ wǔ zhū qián") which is characterized by its obverse side resembling Chinese Wu Zhu coins and reverse side featuring a local Kucha script above and below the square center hole. As the language of the Kingdom of Kucha isn't well preserved in the modern era, many hypotheses have been suggested about its meaning, including that it is simply a translation of "Wu Zhu" or features the name of the Kingdom of Kucha in the Kuśiññe language. Cash coins without any inscription cast in this region (龜茲無文小銅錢, "qiūcí wú wén xiǎo tóng qián") are generally believed to have been produced between the years 265 and 589. The first variant of these cash coins are round in shape and have a rim around the square centre hole on one side (the other side is rimless). They tend to be thin on the outside and thicker on the inside, and they weigh between 0.4 grams and 1.7 grams with a diameter of 9 to 18 millimetres.