1 Cash - Qiandao Yuanbao, Regular script, Tong, with crescent, iron

The Qiandao reign period (1165–1173) of Emperor Xiaozong saw iron cash produced alongside the more familiar bronze issues, a pragmatic response to chronic copper shortages that plagued Southern Song finances throughout the dynasty's truncated territorial hold south of the Huai River. Iron coinage was minted at several furnaces in regions where the metal was locally abundant, particularly in Sichuan and Hunan, where copper supply lines had been severed or made prohibitively expensive by Jin Dynasty occupation of the north.

The crescent mark on this piece is a foundry or batch identifier — its precise attribution remains incompletely resolved in the literature. Hartill 17.122 is among the scarcer varieties within the Qiandao iron series.