1 Cash Kaiyuan Tongbao, Seal script

The Southern Tang kingdom minted this Kai Yuan type in seal script — a deliberate archaism — during the reign of Li Yu, the last ruler of the dynasty, a poet-emperor whose cultural refinements far outpaced his political competence. The seal script character style distinguishes this issue from the standard clerical-script Kaiyuan Tongbao that had dominated Chinese bronze coinage since the Tang dynasty proper, nearly three centuries earlier.

Li Yu surrendered to the Song in 975 and died under house arrest two years later, almost certainly poisoned. The kingdom's minting operations ceased with the conquest.