3 Cash - Hongwu Tongbao, Jing

The Hongwu reign saw an unusual experiment in fiduciary bronze: the Ming court attempted to run a tiered denomination system in copper cash at the same time it was pushing paper currency through the Da Ming Tongxing Baochao notes. The two policies worked against each other. By the late 1370s, the government's own distrust of metal coinage led to periodic outright bans on copper cash transactions, which means many of these multi-cash pieces were pulled from circulation almost immediately after issue.

The "Jing" mint mark denotes Beijing — the northern capital — distinguishing this piece from the considerably more numerous Nanjing output of the same period.