[Hangzhou Museum] Southern Song Dynasty “Zhaona Xinbao” Copper Coin

According to the "Song Records · Liu Guangshi Biography", “Zhaona Xinbao” was a kind of military coin specially minted in Zhenjiang in the summer of 1131 A.D. by Liu Guangshi, the general of the Southern Song Dynasty who was in charge of the imperial patrol army and served as the military magistrate of Zhexilu (an administrative district in the Song Dynasty). At the time, the Southern Song army was fighting against the Jin soldiers. The two sides were evenly matched. They fought each other for a long time across the Yangtze River, resulting in many casualties on both sides. Liu Guangshi learned that many of the Jin soldiers were reluctant conscripts and that most of them had been living in the North for a long time. These soldiers had been so long away from home that they were not acclimatized to the environment of the South, and were therefore homesick. To take advantage of the situation, Liu Guangshi personally designed a special currency that resembled the coins used in the early Southern Song Dynasty with Chinese characters "招纳信宝 (Zhaona Xinbao)" in the regular script engraved around the square hole in the front and the Chinese character "使" (literal meaning: envoy) above the square hole on the back. Whenever enemy soldiers were captured, Liu Guangshi treated them with courtesy, persuaded them to leave the Jin troops to return to their hometowns, gave them enough traveling expenses and held banquets to send them off. He also encouraged them to act as the special envoys of the Song Dynasty to recruit their fellow soldiers and take the “Zhaona Xinbao” coins to secretly distribute to their fellow soldiers who wanted to go home. “Zhaona Xinbao” Coins have become an important witness to the history of the Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty.