Chinese counterfeit ivory "cowrie shell"

Chinese counterfeit ivory "cowrie shell"

In China, cowries were so important that many characters relating to money or trade contain the character for cowry: 貝. Starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency.[2] The Classical Chinese character for "money/currency", 貝, originated as a pictograph of a cowrie shell. (Source: Wikipedia)
Find out more about Chinese counterfeit ivory shells here: http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp068_cowries_china.pdf

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