2 Cash - Jiatai Yuanbao, Tong, iron

Jiatai was the reign period of Emperor Ningzong of Song, running from 1201 to 1204. Iron cash were struck during this era not as a secondary option but out of necessity — copper shortages and the enormous fiscal demands of maintaining defenses against Jin dynasty incursions repeatedly forced the Southern Song to fall back on iron coinage, which circulated primarily in inland and frontier regions where copper supply was thinnest. The two-cash denomination in iron was a deliberate inflationary measure, assigning double face value to a metal worth far less.