100 Cash Yongan, iron

Liu Shouguang declared himself emperor of a revived Yan state in 911, a doomed bid for legitimacy during the collapse of Tang authority that ended when Li Cunxu's Later Tang forces besieged and took Youzhou in 913, capturing Liu and executing him shortly after. Iron cash of this type were struck because copper was militarily and economically strategic — hoarded, requisitioned, or simply unavailable to a regime controlling little more than the Hebei region around modern Beijing. The denomination itself, 100 cash, is characteristic of the inflated token issues that proliferated when peripheral warlords needed purchasing power they couldn't back with metal of real value.