The Cowry shell was part of an ancient monetary system based on sea shells used on nearly every continent! In the modern day it is difficult to imagine this as now most of our transactions are completely digital.
Imagine explaining a bitcoin to a member of ancient civilizations ( or even your parents!) when what they used as money looked like this:
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/21/cowry-shell-coins/
Read more about the history of the Cowry shell in this article: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/21/cowry-shell-coins/
In summary, the cowry shell worked as a form of money because it had many of the characteristics that money needs. The shells are durable and portable, easily recognizable, and because of their unique nature they are hard to counterfeit.
Thousands of years ago there was massive international demand for these cowry shells. For large transactions you might make a purchase with say.... a basket of 12,000 cowry shells.
Some researchers even say that the cowry shell is the OLDEST form of money, originating in ancient China. It is fascinating to think that “consensus” could be found with these cowry shells
From the article :
“It is obvious that shells were used as money and that they did the job pretty well, but one question remains: how did people determine their true value in comparison to other goods? Well, it is quite simple. Their value was determined by the law of supply and demand which lies at the foundation of economy as a science. The farther the place was from the source of cowries or a big trade center, the bigger value the cowry carried. This meant that in some places where it was valued more, you could buy a cow for only one cowry, while in other places, where the shells were more abundant, one cowry had no value. In the Maldives, for example, a person needed thousands of shells to exchange them for only one gold coin.”
Did you catch that? Even though cowry shells were so valuable, people still traded them for ... GOLD:
History buffs should already know about cowry shells and their huge part in the early monetary systems. Just check out these old drawings:
1742 drawing of shells of the money cowry, Cypraea moneta
Do you have a historian in your family? Is your dad a history teacher? Is your dad @slowwalker?
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