10 Cash - Tianqi Tongbao, with Shi Yi Liang

The Tianqi emperor's reign was brief and administratively chaotic — he was famously illiterate and ceded most effective governance to the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, whose faction controlled court appointments, tax collection, and increasingly the imperial mints. Large-denomination cash of this period reflect the fiscal pressure of simultaneous campaigns against the Jurchen-led Later Jin on the northern frontier, where conventional revenue streams were badly strained. The "Shi Yi Liang" inscription denoting an eleven-liang weight standard is a supervisory notation tied to mint accountability practices of the late Ming, not a denomination marker.