For example most regions had a rural/ agrarian economy and could have used cattle horns. It would have represented their amount of cattle they had and therefore their actual wealth.
I think there is a small group of people in africa doing something like that with fish right now.
So why settle for metal coins?
In: Economics
ancient China Africa and India used Cowry shells because they were small, portable, durable and almost impossible to fake, cow horns are probably a bit too easy to obtain and too big. Simple metal currency like the middle eastern talents and celtic iron bars was attractive, valuable in small enough quantities, valuable in it’s own right, unlike, say, today’s paper money, and not easy to reproduce or fake. The later coins started as a certain weight of valuable metal of a decently consistent purity stamped with a mark to show that. Traditionally by Croesus of Lydia after the discovery of methods to seperate the gold and silver in electrum. Lots of people prefered the Cowry shells for a long time after.
Latest Answers