10 Cash - Hongwu Tongbao, with Shi

The Hongwu reign saw one of the most deliberate attempts in Chinese monetary history to suppress copper coinage entirely. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding Hongwu Emperor, was deeply suspicious of metal currency — associating it with the commercial culture he distrusted — and twice issued formal bans on copper cash transactions, pushing paper money as the state's preferred medium. That coins were minted at all during this period reflects the practical failure of those bans to hold against daily commerce.

The "Shi" (十) denomination mark indicates a ten-cash valuation, part of a multi-denomination system introduced at the dynasty's founding. Ministry of Revenue issues are distinguished from contemporaneous Board of Works pieces by subtle casting differences that specialists continue to debate.