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Chinese shell money, 16–8th century BC. Money cowry; length 2.6 cm; Palou Tello, Batu Islands, Indonesia. In China, cowries were so important that many characters relating to money or trade contain the character for cowry: 貝. Starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. [11]
Monetaria moneta, common name the money cowrie, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. [1]This species is called "money cowrie" because the shells were historically widely used in many Pacific and Indian Ocean countries as shell money before coinage was in common usage.
Burial money was modeled after the many different types of ancient Chinese coinages, and earlier forms of burial money tended to be actual money. [5] Graves that were dated to the Shang dynasty period have been discovered that contain thousands of cowrie shells, for example, the Fu Hao-mu, dating to about the year 1200 BCE, was discovered containing 6,900 cowry shells. [8]
Old Chinese Currency used in 1920–23. This currency was also used in Hunza state.. The use of shell money is attested to in the Chinese writing system.The traditional characters for 'goods' (貨), 'buy/sell' (買/賣), and 'monger' (販), in addition to various other words relating to 'exchange', all contain the radical 貝, which is the pictograph for shell (simplified to 贝).
The word cedi is the Akan word for cowry shell. Cowries (plural of cowry) were formerly used as currency in what is now Ghana. The Monetaria moneta or money cowry is not native to West African waters but is a common species in the Indian Ocean. The porcelain-like shells came to West Africa, beginning in the 14th century, through trade with Arab ...
In parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Monetaria annulus, the ring cowry, so-called because of the bright orange-colored ring on the back or upper side of the shell, was commonly used as shell money much like Monetaria moneta. Occasionally the ring part on its back would be hammered away, making it nearly indistinguishable from other ...
Before the Spring and Autumn period, during the Shang dynasty, cowrie shells had been used as an early type of money. In the Zhou period, their use became more stylised with replica shells made of porcelain, jade or metal coming into use. Some sources suggest that early round coins were a highly stylised representation of the cowrie shells. [1] [2]
Tong Bei (simplified Chinese: 铜 贝; traditional Chinese: 銅貝; pinyin: tóng bèi) literally translated as "Bronze Cowry" or "Bronze Shell", is an ancient coin found in China. This coin itself is a replica of more ancient Cowry Money, made for the purpose of replacing it. [1] [2] [3]
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