Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Cash - Chunxi Yuanbao, Regular script, Song, with year, iron
| Issuer | Empire of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1180-1181 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central square hole surrounded by a raised inner rim, with four Chinese ideograms in regular script (kaishu) arranged in cruciform reading order — top, right, bottom, left — forming the reign title inscription. The characters are rendered in a measured, formal calligraphic style typical of Southern Song dynasty cast coinage. A raised outer rim borders the coin's circumference, and the flat field between the legends and the rims is unadorned. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Chunxi Yuanbao was produced under Emperor Xiaozong, whose reign saw sustained military pressure from the Jurchen Jin dynasty to the north. Iron cash of this period were minted in significant quantities across Southern Song furnace operations — copper being increasingly reserved for higher-denomination issues and strategic stockpiling. The dated varieties, specifying the regnal year on the reverse, are a Southern Song administrative habit that aids attribution but does not itself imply rarity.
Hartill 17.210 places this squarely in the standard iron series; survivors in collectible condition are harder to find than their original mintage might suggest, iron being far more susceptible to oxide degradation than bronze.