shell money

Cowrie shells sewn into long straps of plaited fibre. The back of each cowrie has been removed. Until recently those were known in pre-contact days but the practice of using cowries as currency was increased by European importation.

Also used as a decoration for young woman.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
13.4.66/12
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 65 mm x 345 mm x 285 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
shells; plant fibre
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
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Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

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