The largest number of iron cash coins would be produced during the Song dynasty period as a result of a scarcity of copper and high military expenditures, among other reasons.

The last government attempt at issuing iron cash coins occurred during the 1850s the under the reign of the Manchu Qing dynasty.

[2] Over the course of Chinese history a number of monarchs had tried to introduce iron cash coins to the market, but as their subjects never took to them, most of these attempts to issue them were rather short-lived.

[3] The mechanical strength of the cast coinages was thus reduced, but in the case of coins this was not as important as with tools as they did not serve any practical means other than their commodity value.

[3] It is possible that China first began using iron cash coins during the Western Han dynasty, this was concluded after a number of iron Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins were unearthed in Western Han era tombs in the Hunanese cities of Hengyang and Changsha between the years 1955 and 1959.

[6] This ridiculed the tokens of Wang Mang and the iron coins of Gongsun Shu, which were withdrawn by the Eastern Han Emperor Guangwu in the 16th year of Jian Wu (AD 40).

[7] After them the Taiqing Fengle (太清豐樂, "Tai Qing Prosperous and Happy") cash coin was cast under the reign of Emperor Wu, these cash coins were actually believed to be Chinese numismatic charms until recently and were named after the Taiqing period (547-549).

[12] The Liu warlords instituted a brutal regime, confiscating the circulating bronze cash coins and then buried them in a cave in Mount Da’an (in modern Beijing), which was under their control.

[12] Liu Shouguang proclaimed himself to be the Emperor of Great Yan (大燕皇帝, Dà yàn huángdì) adopting the era title of Yìng tiān (應天) in 911, issuing a number of new iron cash coins.

[13] Furthermore, of each these of these cash coins a single genuine specimen is generally believed to exist, all of which are in the private collections of Japanese citizens, meaning that they are currently not available for further research to affirm this attribution.

[7] The bronze cash coins were then replaced with those cast of iron, this then caused the price of goods to soar in the region resulting in great hardship to the local populace.

[18] At this time, the mints were ordered to cast 3 million strings of iron cash to meet military expenses in Shaanxi.

[20] Even though copper cash was abundant in the late 11th century, Chancellor Wang Anshi's tax substitution for corvée labor and government takeover of agricultural finance loans meant that people now had to find additional cash, driving up the price of copper money which would become scarce.

[25] As a result of government corruption, a large number of iron cash coins were cast near the final years of Emperor Zhezong's reign.

[7] Merchant guilds in the province of Sichuan were worldwide the first people to develop officially accepted letters of exchange, or paper money, in the forms of Jiaozi (交子), Qianyin (錢引), and Feiqian (飛錢), thess first forms of paper currency were provided with the security of iron cash coins.

[7] During the second month of the year 1854 the government of the Qing dynasty supplemented the already debased Xianfeng coinage system with iron cash coins.

[1] While the actual production numbers of iron cash coins remains unclear because of the limited entries about them in the records maintained by the Qing treasury, Peng Xinwei estimated, based on information he had gathered from Qing government memorials, that there had been an average annual production of 1,808,160 strings of iron cash coins between the year 1854 and 1855 and an annual production of 1,360,920 strings of iron cash coins during the years 1856 until 1859.

[32] This work was then carried out by one of the Chinese branch mints with 10 furnaces that was located just outside of the western suburbs of Baoding by the Lingyu Temple (靈雲宮).

[32] The function of iron cash coins was similar to that of Daqian, as it was primarily used as a way to continue paying the salaries of bannermen and other government workers.

[1] According to Qing government memorials, large amounts of iron cash coins were used as a means to pay salaries between the years 1856 and 1857 due to a noted justification that "the Chinese public was craving for small change".