Since the 4th year of Yong-Lo (1405), Chang Ho had been assigned by Emperor Cheng Tsu to start his southward ventures for 7 times. Until the 7th month of the 5th year of Huang De (1433) he returned to China from the last trip. During his 7 ventures he and his giant fleet of about 50 giant vessels and more than 20,000 soldiers visited south Asian areas, Arab Peninsula, India, Ceylon, Maldives and eastern Africa. Each time they brought huge number of cash coins, chinaware, Chinese herbs ... and many other goods on their vessels, as rewards or gifts to the visiting countries and areas.
The following map illustrates the navigation routes for Cheng Ho's 7-time
trips.
Lots of Yong Lo cash coins were cast for such diplomatic purpose then and were sent to those visited countries. Besides, Yong Lo cash coins were particularly the Japanese's favorite; they shipped lots back from China, and cast their own Yong Lo cash coins in Japan. Ming's cash coins were found not only for once in Mid-East, to my memories, Iran had found them before, and so did Mogadishu of Somalia in east Africa.