Cowrie shells (Monetaria moneta), valued for their durability and uniform size, served as a primary currency for thousands of years in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Used as early as the 13th century B.C. in China, they were later adopted extensively by West African nations, India, and various Pacific island cultures.
Starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. The Classical Chinese character radical for "money/currency", 貝, originated as a pictograph of a cowrie shell. Cowries or kaudi were used as means of exchange in India since ancient times up to around 1830.
Known as cowrie shells, these artifacts have become synonymous with slavery and serve as identifiers for the presence of free and enslaved Black individuals in the Americas.
Europeans in the 16th century were able to use cowries to enter the valuable African trade markets, where they used shells to buy goods, including people. In America, cowries appear in spirit bundles, as parts of jewelry, and on clothing, hinting at their use as amulets.
Caravans of Arab traders are thought to have introduced cowrie shells into West Africa as early as the 8th century, but it wasn't until the 15th century that the shells circulated as money.
What Is Cowrie Shell Currency? - African Roots And Routes
Why did the early Chinese use cowrie shells as money?
In com-parison with foodstuffs, which are perishable, and feathers, which can be damaged by vermin, cowry shells can withstand frequent handling and are small and easy to transport. As they are nearly always the same shape and size, they could also be counted or simply weighed to determine the value of a payment.
These included livestock and grain – things directly useful in themselves – but also merely attractive items such as cowrie shells or beads which were exchanged for more useful commodities.
Though cowrie shells are no longer used as currency in Africa, they still carry an association with money and wealth. In Ghana, their history is honored on a 20-cedi coin. Cedi, the Akan word for cowrie, is the unit of currency in Ghana.
For millennia, Aboriginal people have used shells in initiations and other rituals, for fishhooks and other tools, and as adornments to indicate social status. Evidence also suggests that Aboriginal people in Western Australia used shells in their trade with neighbours.
The actual gastropod (snail) that creates this beautiful shell is responsible for its luster, it comes out and envelops the shell to polish and clean it up, and to move around (I've seen this mostly at night!) so it's also a good idea not to handle/touch live cowrie shells so our germs don't contaminate them.
So, the use of cowries as a talisman or divination tool is haram, because this amounts to seeking protection or knowledge elsewhere than in Allah. However, wear a cowrie as a traditional piece of jewelry or craft accessory — without any magical belief — is not haram.
Paper money was first invented by the Chinese in the 7th century A.D. as a way of simplifying larger monetary transactions; paper money is a lot easier to handle than thousands of copper coins. In the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty, private issued bills of credit were introduced.
9000 - 6000 B.C.: Cattle. Cattle, which throughout history and across the globe have included not only cows but also sheep, camels, and other livestock, are the first and oldest form of money. ...
Which kingdom used cowrie shells as a form of currency?
For example, in the Niger Delta and along the Guinea Coast, cowries were bored and counted on strings of 40 shells; in the kingdom of Buganda in East Africa they were put on strings of 100 shells.
Of the 250 species of cowrie shells in the world, only two can be found in Britain – the spotted or European cowrie with three brown spots and the Arctic cowrie with no spots. In Scotland they are called groatie buckies and thought to bring luck.
They vary in size, and can usually be spotted at night when they emerge to dine on a variety of plant and animal matter. Typically living in one small area their whole life, smaller cowries have a lifespan of two to three years, while larger ones can live up to a decade.
They were often used by astrologers in Southern India to predict the future. In Hindu mythology, cowrie shells were said to be sacred to the Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Shiva.
The British pound is the world's oldest currency still in use at around 1,200 years old. Dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, the pound has gone through many changes before evolving into the currency we recognise today.
Time, Attention, Money, Space – the four currencies of life that define what we experience and who we become. 💡 Why each currency matters: Time: The one currency you can spend but never earn back. Attention: Where your focus goes, your life flows.
Jiaozi (Chinese: 交子) was a form of promissory note which appeared around the 11th century in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, China. Numismatists regard it as the first paper money in history, a development of the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279 CE).
