1 Cash Kaiyuan Tongbao, Nan, with number

The Kaiyuan Tongbao design, first introduced under Tang Xuanzong in 621 AD, was so thoroughly adopted by subsequent states that attribution of individual pieces to specific issuing authorities remains genuinely contested. Lead-composition examples like this one were produced by several of the Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties period — a stretch of fragmentation during which minting authority splintered across warlord-controlled southern China. The "Nan" inscription and numerical reverse mark are the primary attributive tools scholars use, though die-study consensus on exact issuing states is still incomplete.