2 Cash - Shaoxi Yuanbao, Regular script, Tong, with year, iron

The Shaoxi reign period (1190–1194) fell under Emperor Guangzong, whose rule was marked by deteriorating mental health and an increasingly dysfunctional court — his refusal to perform ritual mourning for his father Xiaozong triggered a constitutional crisis that effectively paralyzed the central government. Iron cash of this period were minted partly because chronic copper shortages had plagued the Southern Song for decades, with the metal diverted to military hardware and bronze Buddhist castings. Iron coinage was broadly unpopular with the public, prone to rust, and traded at a discount against copper equivalents.

The inclusion of a reign year on the reverse — rather than a mint name — places this among the more precisely attributable iron issues of the period.