Native American Proto-Currencies
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MEXICO, Aztec culture. Circa AD 1200/1300-1525
Æ “Hachuela” (143mm x 150mm, 55.70 g)
Mushroom-shaped bronze pseudo-axe-head with curved “blade” and flanged shank
Hosler, Lechtman, & Holm, Axe-monies and their Relatives, type 2aArdatirion
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UNITED STATES, Native proto-currency. Seneca tribe.
Ganounata village (Honeoye Falls, NY). Circa AD 1625-1687
White wampum beads (apx. 5mm, 0.10g each)
Carved white shell beads with lateral hole for suspension in belt
Cf. William Martin Beauchamp, Wampum and Shell Articles Used by the New York Indians, p. 369
Found at the Dann Farm site in Honeoye Falls, NY.
In 1687 combined French and Huron forces, lead by the Marquis de Denonville, set out to undermine the strength of the Iriquois Confederacy. The main strike was made against Seneca villages in Western New York. Ganounata was burned during the campaign. This episode was only one in a long line of conflicts fought over control of the North American fur trade.
Wampum was used by Native Americans in woven belts of white and black beads. The white beads were crafted from the columella of the Channeled Whelk, the black from the quahog. Traditionally, wampum belts were used as a ceremonial object to initiate a trade contract. It was only with the coming of the Europeans that wampum began to function as coinage. In 1673, New York state officially set the value of wampum at six white beads to the Dutch stuiver, or three black until they fell out of use. Ardatirion
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UNITED STATES, Native proto-currency. Northern Pacific coast. 18th-early19th century
Shell “kop-kop” (29mm by 6mm, 0.38 g)
Tubular shell of the dentalium genus of mollusks
Robert Stearns, Ethno-conchology: A Study of Primitive Money p. 314-321
Ex Detroit Museum of Art
Kop-kops were smaller or damaged pieces of hi-qua shells and circulated as a fraction of the hi-qua. Use of this shell type as currency ranged from northern California to Alaska.
Ardatirion
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