2 Cash - Chunxi Tongbao, Tong, with year, read clockwise, iron

Chunxi was the reign era of Emperor Xiaozong of Song, and by the 1180s the Southern Song administration was running parallel iron and bronze cash economies across different regions — iron currency was largely confined to Sichuan and parts of Hubei, where bronze shortages and military expenditure against the Jin dynasty made iron the pragmatic alternative. This piece's clockwise reading and the inclusion of a reign year on the reverse narrow its attribution to a specific foundry sequence documented by Hartill, distinguishing it from the far more common non-dated issues of the same era.