2 Cash - Kaixi Tongbao, Han, read clockwise, iron

The Kaixi reign period lasted just three years under Emperor Ningzong before the era name was abandoned — a brevity that kept total iron cash output comparatively low. Iron coinage in the Southern Song was largely a regional necessity, driven by chronic copper shortages in territories south of the Huai River and the near-total loss of northern mining regions to the Jurchen Jin dynasty after 1127. The clockwise reading style on this issue is the less common orientation within the Kaixi series, making die attribution against Hartill 17.524 worth verifying carefully against the stroke angles of the second character.