[3] Mints were established in various cities and provinces including Nanjing, Beiping, Henan, Jinan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, Guangdong, and Guilin.

[8] In Japan a large number of imported Ming dynasty cash coins (明銭) started circulating as Shichūsen (私鋳銭) from the sixteenth century.

On the island of Kyushu a village named Kajiki in the Satsuma Domain produced a large quantity of cash coins between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as Satsuma had a very active trade with the Ryukyu Kingdom, these imitations of Ming dynasty cash coins bore the inscription "Kōbu Tsūhō" but had the Kanji character "治" (Ji) on its reverse to indicate that it was struck in Kajiki.

[9] List of mint marks on Hongwu Tongbao cash coins:[10] Chinese numismatic charms with the inscription "Hongwu Tongbao" (洪武通寶) are common however those with graphic depictions of the life of Zhu Yuanzhang only began to appear after the Xinhai revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China in 1912, this was because casting or having in one's possession a "coin" which showed the life of a Chinese emperor during the imperial period would lead to them facing almost certain death.

The reason why Hongwu Tongbao charms and amulets became very popular with the Chinese masses is because these amulets represented the hope that those who come from less than fortunate beginnings may grow up to become the Emperor, this was because Zhu Yuanzhang was born to an impoverished peasant family, his parents died while he was very young, became a beggar, later found employment as a shepherd boy, and eventually moved to live in a Buddhist monastery.

[12][13] Another example of a Hongwu Tongbao charm with a size of 43 millimeters in diameter and weighs 29.2 grams depicts a less detailed scene where the reverse features a little boy playing a flute riding either an ox or a water buffalo,[14] in this case the young boy represents Zhu Yuanzhang (or Emperor Taizu) in his youth while the flute he is playing is a symbol associated with a care free life while it is also both a Buddhist and a Taoist symbol.