100 Cash - Ding Ping Shu

The State of Shu, the smallest and most resource-constrained of the Three Kingdoms, debased its bronze coinage aggressively to finance its near-constant military campaigns — most famously Zhuge Liang's five northern expeditions against Wei. The Ding Ping Shu series represents the extreme end of that debasement: a coin nominally valued at 100 cash but weighing less than a gram, making the face value fiction backed by nothing but state coercion.

Hartill documents considerable variation in fabric and calligraphic style across this type, likely reflecting multiple casting runs from different foundries under wartime pressure.