Shell money is a medium of exchange common to many primitive races, consisting of sea shells or pieces of them worked into beads or artificially shaped. Shell-money has not been restricted to one quarter of the globe, but in some form or other appears to have been almost universal. It has been found in America, Asia, Africa and Australia. The shell used by the Native American tribes of Alaska and California was the Dentalium pretiosum, a species of tusk shell found along the northwest coast. It received its name from its tusk-like appearance, and was valued by length and not by the number of shells. The usual method of measuring was by the finger-joints, and the ligua, the highest denomination of their coinage, consisted of twenty-five shells strung together, which from end to end made a total measurement of a fathom (6 ft.) or thereabouts, equalling in English coinage about 50 cents. Farther south on the shore of California the Indians used the Saxidomus gracilis or Tapis gracilis, while in the islands close to the littoral the Lilornia obesa was in commonest use. World map showing the Americas America or the Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... World map showing the location of Asia. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... Indigenous peoples in the United States are distinct groups of peoples who are indigenous to what are now states or territories of the United States of America. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,854 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Tusk shell Tusk Shell (bottom) Orders Dentaliida Gadilida The tusk shells are a class Scaphopoda of marine mollusks distinguished by curved tubular shells open at both ends, resembling a elephants tusk (thus the name). ...

But the shell most used by primitive peoples has always been the Cypraea moneta, or money-cowry. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and is collected more particularly in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Malabar coast, in Borneo and other East Indian islands, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique. It was formerly in familiar use in Bengal, where, though it required 3840 to make a rupee, the annual importation was valued at about 30,000. In western Africa it was, until past the middle of the 19th century, the usual tender, and before the abolition of the slave trade there were large shipments of cowry shells to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast. Species Cypraea annulus Cypraea moneta Cypraea pantherina Cypraea spurca Cypraea tigris Cypraea vitellus Cyprea linx Various species of Cowry from all over the world Cowry shells (also spelled “cowrie”), are marine snails of the genus Cypraea (family Cypraeidae), found chiefly in tropical regions, especially around the Maldives or the East... The Republic of Maldives is a country consisting territorially of a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, south-southwest of India. ... Borneo (left) and Sulawesi. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ... Hafun (Xaafuun) is a small low-lying peninsula in the Bari region of northern Somalia. ... Bengal, known as Bôngo (Bengali: বঙ্গ), Bangla (বাংলা), Bôngodesh (বঙ্গদেশ), or Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) in Bangla, is a region in the northeast of South Asia. ... Indian Rupee Collection The Rupee (₨ or Rs. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

As the value of the cowry was very much greater in West Africa than in the regions from which the supply was obtained, the trade was extremely lucrative, and in some cases the gains are said to have been 500%. The use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland in Africa, and about 1850 Heinrich Barth found it fairly recognized in Kano, Kuka, Gando, and even Timbuktu. Barth relates that in Muniyoma, one of the ancient divisions of Bornu, the king's revenue was estimated at 30,000,000 shells, every full-grown man being required to pay annually 1000 shells for himself, 1000 for every pack-ox, and 2000 for every slave in his possession. Heinrich Barth (1821-1865), German explorer, was born at Hamburg on February 16, 1821, and educated at Berlin University, where he graduated in 1844. ... Timbuktu, Timbuctu or Timbuctoo (Koyra Chiini: Tumbutu, French: Tombouctou) is a city populated by the Songhay, Tuareg, Fulani, and Moorish people in the West African country of Mali. ... The Kanem-Bornu Empire existed in Africa, established around 1200 and lasting, in a changed form, until the 1840s. ... Slavery is the social and legal designation of specific persons as property, for the purpose of providing labor and services for the owner without the right of the slave to refuse, or gain compensation. ...

In the countries on the coast the shells were fastened together in strings of 40 or 100 each, so that fifty or twenty strings represented a dollar; but in the interior they were laboriously counted one by one, or, if the trader were expert, five by five. The districts mentioned above received their supply of kurdi, as they were called, from the west coast; but the regions to the north of Unyamwezi, where they were in use under the name of simbi, were dependent on Muslem traders from Zanzibar. The shells are still used in the remoter parts of Africa, but are yearly tending to give way to ordinary currency. The shell of the land-snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles with an open center has been long used as coin in Benguella, Portuguese West Africa. In parts of Asia Cyproeci annulus, the ring cowry, so-called from the bright orange-colored ring on the back or upper side of the shell, was commonly used. Many specimens were found by Sir Henry Layard in his excavations at Nimrud in 1845-1851. The dollar (represented by the dollar sign: $) is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is an adherent of Islam. ... Map of Zanzibars main island Zanzibar (IPA pronunciation: ), as used today, is the collective name for two East African islands off mainland Tanzania: Unguja (also called Zanzibar) and Pemba. ... The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was a British author and diplomatist, best known as the excavator of Nineveh. ... Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. ...

In north Australia different shells were used, one tribes shell being often absolutely worthless in the eyes of another tribe. In the islands north of New Guinea the shells are broken into flakes. Holes are bored through these flakes, which are then valued by length, as in the case of the American tuskshell, the measuring, however, being done between the nipples of the breasts instead of by the finger-joints. Two shells are used by these Pacific islanders, one a cowry found on the New Guinea coast, and the other the common pearl shell broken into flakes. As late as 1882 local trade in the Solomon Islands was carried on by means of a coinage of shell beads, small shells laboriously ground down to the required size by the women. No more than were actually needed were made, and as the process was difficult, the value of the coinage was satisfactorily maintained. The custom of breaking or flaking shells was common among some of the American Indian tribes, but the shells so manipulated were of the ponderous Pachyderma crassatelloides species, while in the South Pacific Islands the Oliva carneola was used.

In China, cowries were so important that all characters relating to money contain the character for cowry: 貝.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.