Name/Title
CE 1158 - 1161 Zheng Long cash, Emperor Wan Yan Liang, Tartar Jin dynasty, ChinaDescription
Jin Dynasty Zhenglong Yuanbao Cash Coin of Emperor Wanyan Liang, 1158–1161 CE
China, Jin Dynasty (1115–1234)
Reign of Wanyan Liang (Emperor Hailing), r. 1150–1161
Zhenglong era, 1158–1161 CE
Cast copper-alloy cash coin
24.5 mm; 3.45 g
Hartill 18.40; Schjöth 1083
Description
Cast copper-alloy Zhenglong Yuanbao (正隆元寶) cash coin issued during the reign of Wanyan Liang (完顏亮), emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. The obverse bears the four-character inscription 正隆元寶 (Zhenglong Yuanbao) arranged around a square central hole and read clockwise beginning at the top. Zhenglong was Wanyan Liang’s reign era; yuanbao was a conventional designation for currency. The reverse is uninscribed.
This specimen represents the standard four-stroke form of the character 正 (zheng), corresponding to Hartill 18.40. The coin retains clearly recognizable characters and substantially complete inner and outer rims. Its surfaces exhibit extensive green and brown mineral patination and encrustation consistent with long-term burial or environmental exposure. Some areas of green copper corrosion are present, particularly near the perimeter; their stability cannot be determined from photographs alone.
The Zhenglong Yuanbao, first issued in 1158, is historically significant as the first regular coinage produced by the Jin dynasty. The Jurchens had founded the Jin in 1115, defeated the Khitan Liao, and conquered the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng in 1127. For several decades thereafter, the Jin economy continued to rely heavily on existing Song and Liao copper cash alongside other forms of currency. Wanyan Liang’s introduction of a Jin copper coinage formed part of the broader institutional consolidation of Jurchen rule over northern China.
Wanyan Liang was an ambitious and controversial Jin ruler who promoted administrative centralization and moved the principal Jin capital from the Jurchen homeland in the northeast to Zhongdu, at the site of modern Beijing. In 1161 he launched a major campaign to conquer the Southern Song dynasty. The invasion failed, and Wanyan Liang was assassinated by his own officers later that year.
Although modest in monetary value and relatively common among surviving Jin cash coins, the Zhenglong Yuanbao marks an important transition in the monetary history of medieval China: the development of a distinctive imperial coinage by a Jurchen conquest dynasty governing the former territories of the Northern Song.
Obverse: 正隆元寶 (Zhenglong Yuanbao), clockwise from top, surrounding square central hole; raised inner and outer rims.
Reverse: Blank, with raised inner and outer rims.
Condition: Excavated or environmentally patinated appearance; green and brown mineral patina with localized encrustation and copper-corrosion products. Obverse inscription substantially legible; reverse surfaces more heavily obscured. No major casting break apparent. Surface deposits retained.
References: Hartill 18.40; Schjöth 1083.Create Date
August 13, 2026Update Date
August 13, 2026
