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1/10 Cash - Taiping Tongbao, iron
| Issuer | Empire of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 976-989 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/10 Cash (0.1) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Cast iron coin of round form with a central square perforation (cash-type flan). Four Chinese characters in clerical script (lishu) are arranged in cruciform fashion around the central square hole, reading top-to-bottom then right-to-left: 太平通寶 (Taiping Tongbao). The characters occupy the four cardinal fields between the square rim of the central hole and the raised inner border. The coin displays a plain raised rim at the outer edge and a squared inner rim framing the perforation, both cast in relief. The surfaces show the characteristic granular texture typical of iron-cast Song-era cash coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 太平通寶 (Translation: Tai Ping Tong Bao — Taiping era [976-984] / Universal currency) |
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| Additional information |
The Taiping Tongbao was the inaugural coinage of Emperor Taizong of Song, issued following his consolidation of power after the death of his brother Taizu in 976 — a succession still debated by historians, with persistent suspicion of foul play. Iron cash of this type were struck primarily in regions where copper was scarce or strategically reserved, reflecting the Song court's ongoing tension between monetizing a vast empire and conserving strategic metals needed for military hardware.
Schjoth 462 places this squarely among the documented iron varieties, though iron Song cash suffers from corrosion at a rate that makes genuinely stable survivors less common than catalog frequency implies.