NORTHERN SONG: Jing Kang, 1126-1127, iron cash (5.52g), H-16.518, regular script, scarce reign title (nian hao), F-VF, S, ex SARC Auction 45, Lot 2335. In 1126, Qinzong became the ninth and final emperor of the Northern Song after the hurried abdication of his father in the wake of the first Jin (Jurchen) siege of the capital city Bianjing (today's Kaifeng, Henan). Despite an initial peace treaty, his miscalculations led to an even larger invasion the next year and a second, and ultimately successful, siege of Bianjing. In an event since known as the Jingkang Incident, the emperor was captured along with his father and many members of the imperial household, and taken prisoner to the Jin capital in northern Manchuria, where he would spend the rest of his life in humiliation and die a broken man. A younger half-brother of his managed to escape to the south and re-established the court in Lin 'an (Hangzhou, Zhejiang), thus commencing the Southern Song dynasty.

Estimate: USD 150 - 250