Does anyone in here know anything about primitive coins? I had a friend send me what he said was primitive money from Africa, he called it a kissi penny, it was this long, thin twisted string of some metal, and he said that it was used in Africa as a trade currency, because it could be melted down and recast for tools. He also sent me a slave bracelet that he said was used for money too, and I wondered if anyone knew anything more about this kind of stuff. Also, he sent me this ?silk? chinese note with characters all over it that he said was issued during Mao's reign. If anyone has any ideas about this stuff, I would appreciate the input! THanks!

Perhaps coins like this? http://www.joelscoins.com/odd.htm

I don't collect primitive coins so I don't really know much...

Kissi pennies and slave braclets were in fact a form of money in some of the African cultures. I don't have much time right now, but I'll dig out some info that I have on primative money.

Do you have any pics of this you could show us???

A couple of references:

A survey of primitive money; the beginning of currency, by A. Hingston Quiggin. Publisher New York, Barnes & Noble [1970]

Einzig, Paul
Primitive money in its ethnological, historical, and economic aspects.
Publisher Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press [1966]

Yes! Exactly like those! I don't collect them either, but sometimes he sends me really eclectic stuff! I think it is cool! lol!

This is a Katanga Cross that I purchased over the summer, it is a large size coin, about 9" or 22.5mm diametre coin.

"If the Kissie were broken the soul would escape and it would be valueless"

Man! You learn somehting new every day. Pretty cool info.

But they could be healed by a medicine man. I'm still looking. I have a whole presentation from an ANA seminar that covers primitive money. It was done by Dr. Brunner - a great job.

The medicine man welded them back together again. The Kissi pennies are something I have never owned.

I sometimes think I should, as a joke, find a broken one and send it to my cousin the MD asking hime to restore it's soul. (Along with a nice printout about the Kissi penny) Well HE'S a medicine man.

[quote=gxseries,Jan 17 2006, 12:16 PM]
Perhaps coins like this? http://www.joelscoins.com/odd.htm



Or these - I guess they'd be considered a commemorative set.
http://www.joelscoins.com/new2.htm#africa1500

I found my presentations from the ANA seminar. I have Lane Brunner's permission to share them, but I don't have a clue as to how I can do that here. They're MS PowerPoint Presentations. Any ideas?

You can take a screen shot of each screen, but it may be a large file to post then. You can also just post the PowerPoint file as an attachment too.

Here's a link to the Primitive Money Presentation.

Some thanks are in order:
1) Dr. Lane Brunner, now with the ANA, for the use of his superb presentation.
2) Henare for getting this into the right formats and posting it on a website so we can all view it.

Thanks to both of you.


http://homepage.mac.com/henare/TradMoney.html

Cool presentation thanks for getting that put up online. The only that stands out as missing was salt.

Life was cheap in Africa as compared to India, fine for murdering someone in Africa ranged from 3-7 cows, and in India 100 cows.

Maybe there were fewer cows in Africa. Also, murdering woman was always cheaper than men.

I missed that one. The one that struck me as being missing was canoe money.

A very interesting slide show none the less.

Oh, I can't resist. Restrain me .........

I know something about primitive money, but .........

what's a ewer cow or a muering woman?

I'm so sorry!

Fixed