WESTERN LIAO: Xu Xing, 1151-1164, AE cash (3.5g), Zeno-316563 (this example), oblong central hole, without dot below, graded 80 by GBCA Grading Company, F-VF, RRR. Possibly cast in Balasagun, which was an ancient Sogdian city in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, located in the Chuy Valley between Bishkek and Issyk-Kul Lake. Balasagun was the capital of the Western Liao Dynasty (1124-1218), also known as Qara Khitay ("Black Cathay"). It was founded by Yelü Dashi, a member of the Liao royal family, who led the remnants of the Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in the North and Northeast of modern-day China. It was usurped by the Naimans under Küchlük in 1211 and finally destroyed by the Mongol Empire in 1218. See www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=9299 for articles (in Russian, Chinese & English) on the coinage of this dynasty.
