To break this stalemate Liu Guangshi decided to cast a special type of cash coin in Jiangzhou (present day Jiujiang, Jiangxi) which wasn't meant to circulate in the same manner as regular coinage but to encourage members of the Jin military to defect to the Song side.

The token coin proved to work and the enormous number of deserters forced the Jin general Wan Yanchang to call for his remaining troops to retreat.

[13][14] On the silver version of the Zhaona Xinbao the "Shi" (使) is the same albeit diminutive in size however the character below the square center hole which is also presumed to be a signature resembles a "凵" (kǎn) with a "禾" (hé) in the middle.

Meanwhile, despite 20th century Chinese numismatic works mentioning several silver and gold versions of the Zhaona Xinbao being in the hands of some private collectors, their whereabouts are all currently unknown and both their cultural and market values are considered to be "priceless".

[citation needed] In 2006 the family of the well-known Chinese numismatist Ma Dingxiang (馬定祥) donated a Zhaona Xinbao cash coin to the Hangzhou Museum in Zhejiang.

[17] During the early years of the Republic of China, a silver Zhaona Xinbao was reported to be in the hands of Fang Dishan (方地山) which Yuan Hanyun (袁寒雲) describes as being a wee bit bigger than the bronze variant.

The gold version of the Zhaona Xinbao are classified as "first-class national cultural relics" (國家一級文物, guó jiā yī jí wén wù) by the government of the People's Republic of China.