1 Cash Kaiyuan Tongbao; Clerical script

The Southern Tang was the wealthiest of the Ten Kingdoms, controlling the lower Yangtze basin and its silk and tea revenues, yet by 961 it had already been forced into tributary submission to the nascent Song dynasty. Li Yu, the last ruler and celebrated poet-emperor, continued issuing coinage under his own authority during these final fifteen years — a increasingly hollow assertion of independence that ended when Song forces took Nanjing in 975.

The clerical script variety of the Kaiyuan Tongbao formula is a deliberate archaism, invoking the great Tang prototype of 621 AD while distinguishing Southern Tang output from contemporary northern issues. Hartill 15.101 is moderately scarce relative to the regular script emissions of the same reign.