 According to David Hartill the first Qianlong Tongbao cash coins produced at the Yarkant Mint were intended to be a present for the Qianlong Emperor.The Western cities of the Southern Circuit were poor in natural copper sources and required the reclamation of pūl coins for the production of cash coins while in the Eastern cities of the Southern Circuit such as Aksu, Karashar, Kucha, and Turpan copper was more easily acquired as this area was rich in copper ore. Because of this the government of the Qing dynasty opened a massive mint with six furnaces and employing 360 workers in the city of Aksu in the year 1761, among its employees were technicians sent to oversee the coin production brought in from the mints of the Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.Other than using the copper ore acquired from the region to produce Qianlong Tongbao cash coins, the Aksu Mint also used copper the government accepted as a form of taxation from the population of the eastern part of the Southern city as well as the begs of Aksu.