2 Cash - Yuanfeng Tongbao, Seal script, iron

Yuanfeng was the reign era of Emperor Shenzong, and the period saw aggressive monetary expansion as part of Wang Anshi's New Policies reforms — a sweeping fiscal overhaul that included deliberately increasing the iron cash supply to ease chronic copper shortages in the northern circuits. Iron 2-cash pieces were produced at multiple furnace mints inland, particularly in Shaanxi and Hedong, precisely because copper supply routes from the south were unreliable under the reform economy. Hartill 16.228 is among the commoner iron types of the era, but attrition from rust means genuinely intact survivors are less routine than their original volumes would suggest.