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Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to coin money and other forms of commodity money, and was once commonly used in many parts of the world. [1] Shell money usually consisted of whole or partial sea shells , often worked into beads or otherwise shaped.
Shell jewelry is jewelry that is primarily made from seashells, the shells of marine mollusks. Shell jewelry is a type of shellcraft . One very common form of shell jewelry is necklaces that are composed of large numbers of beads , where each individual bead is the whole (but often drilled) shell of a small sea snail .
Remnants of seashells that were used to make beads were also found. Oyster shell, mother of pearl, abalone, conch, and clam shells have been important trade items in the Southwest for over a thousand years. Native beadwork continued to advance in the pre-Columbian era. Beads were made from hand-ground and filed turquoise, coral, and shell.
When the jewelry was removed, a potlatch was held to celebrate, and the girl would be considered eligible for marriage. [4] Athabaskan peoples of Alaska and subarctic Canada incorporate dentalium into jewelry with glass beads. Along with iron, these items were regarded as prestigious trade goods in the 19th century. [4]
The Spondylus shell was used as neolithic jewelry and also as an early form of currency. The interior of two fossil valves of Spondylus from the Pliocene of Cyprus. There is global evidence of the importance of the spondylus shell. Archaeological evidence [2] shows that people in Europe were trading the shells as jewelry as long as 5,000 years ago.
Naturally-formed rounded cone shell fragments suitable to be used as beads are hard to find in large quantities, so true puka jewelry, formed entirely naturally, is now uncommon. Shell jewellery made from naturally occurring puka shells is also now more expensive because of the labor and time involved in locating and hand-picking these rather ...
Also found among the Roman coins were 72 gold aurei, dated from 18 B.C. to 47 A.D. Those coins show no signs of wear and likely came from a pile of freshly minted coins, according to the Cultural ...
1742 drawing of shells of the money cowrie, Monetaria moneta Cowrie shells The shells of cowries are usually smooth and shiny and more or less egg-shaped. The round side of the shell is called the Dorsal Face, whereas the flat under side is called the Ventral Face, which shows a long, narrow, slit-like opening (), which is often toothed at the edges.