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5 Cash - Shengsong Zhongbao, Li, iron
| Issuer | Southern Song Dynasty |
|---|---|
| Year | 1208-1210 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 11 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain reverse field with a central square perforation flanked by raised inner and outer rims. Three characters — 利 (mint mark, left), 壹 (one, top or bottom), and 五 (five, right or bottom) — are arranged around the square hole, denoting the mint identifier 利 (Li, for Lizhou) and the denomination marker 壹五 (year one, five cash). The surface exhibits pronounced iron corrosion, flaking, and pitting across the entire field, consistent with the deterioration typical of Southern Song iron coinage recovered from burial contexts. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND (1208-1210) - Year 1 (壹; Yi) |
| Additional information |
The Shengsong Zhongbao was issued under Emperor Ningzong during a period when Southern Song monetary policy was under severe strain — decades of war with the Jin dynasty had forced the court into increasingly desperate monetary experiments, including the mass production of iron coinage to conserve bronze for military hardware and to satisfy demand in regions where copper cash had simply stopped circulating. Iron issues from this reign are frequently found corroded or fragmentary precisely because iron cash were treated as low-status emergency money and rarely curated.
The Li script designation distinguishes this from concurrent Zhuan script issues of the same type, a distinction that mattered to contemporaries as a marker of workshop origin.