Indigenous Coin List
A viewset for viewing and editing Indigenous Coins.
GET /api/sc/indigenous-coins/?format=api&page=8
{ "count": 521, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/indigenous-coins/?format=api&page=9", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/indigenous-coins/?format=api&page=7", "results": [ { "id": 351, "polity": { "id": 353, "name": "ye_himyar_1", "long_name": "Himyar I", "start_year": 270, "end_year": 340 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Himyarite kings minted coins bearing their images\".§REF§(Friedman 2006, 106) Saul S. Friedman. 2006. A History of the Middle East. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson.§REF§ Silver coins.§REF§(Hitti 2002, 56) Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.§REF§ Coins in South Arabia at least from 200 BCE.§REF§(Hitti 2002, 568 Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.§REF§ \"In south Arabia the earliest coins (fourth/third century BC) are imitations of Athenian tetradrachms\".§REF§(Hoyland 2001, 194) Robert G Hoyland. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. London.§REF§ Referring to Aksum's period of rule in South Arabia, Kobishanov says \"coins did not exist in vassal states such as Himyar or 'Alva.§REF§(Kobishanov 1981, 386) Y M. Kobishanov. Aksum: political system, economics and culture, first to fourth century. Muḥammad Jamal al-Din Mokhtar. ed. 1981. UNESCO General History of Africa. Volume II. Heinemann. UNESCO. California.§REF§" }, { "id": 352, "polity": { "id": 354, "name": "ye_himyar_2", "long_name": "Himyar II", "start_year": 378, "end_year": 525 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Himyarite kings minted coins bearing their images\".§REF§(Friedman 2006, 106) Saul S. Friedman. 2006. A History of the Middle East. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Jefferson.§REF§ Silver coins.§REF§(Hitti 2002, 56) Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.§REF§ Coins in South Arabia at least from 200 BCE.§REF§(Hitti 2002, 568 Philip K Hitti. 2002 (1937). History of the Arabs. 10th Edition. Palgrave Macmillan. Basingstoke.§REF§ \"In south Arabia the earliest coins (fourth/third century BC) are imitations of Athenian tetradrachms\".§REF§(Hoyland 2001, 194) Robert G Hoyland. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. London.§REF§" }, { "id": 353, "polity": { "id": 541, "name": "ye_qasimid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Qasimid Dynasty", "start_year": 1637, "end_year": 1805 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Taxation was a majour source of public income: 'Besides the wealth to be extracted from the southern peasantry, the Imams of the period also had available, if they could retain control, taxes from a burgeoning coffee trade. The rise and fall of the Yemeni coffee trade with Europe matches almost exactly the trajectory of the Imamate's wealth (see Boxhall 1974; Niebuhr 1792). The English and Dutch established factories at Mocha in 1618; the trade was probably at its height around 1730; and the world price of coffee finally crashed at the start of the nineteenth century, at which point one gets mention of Imams debasing the currency (al-'Amri 1985: 59). This wealth, however, had always to be fought for; the rulers became wealthier and more powerful than hitherto, but still were liable to dispute among themselves.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 200§REF§ 'The state the Qasimis formed in the midst of this was none the less impressive (for the rulers' genealogy see Fig. 6.1). Al-Qasim himself, who early in his fight against the Turks had wept over his children starving at Barat, was wealthy when the truce was signed. He built the mosque at Shaharah, then built houses for himself and his followers, planted coffee in al-Ahnum, and amassed more land than the public treasury (Nubdhah: 258, 334-6). The court expanded with the southern conquests. Al-Mutawakkil received an embassy from Ethiopia and exchanged gifts of fine horses with Aurangzib of India (Serjeant 1983: 80-1), while his relatives expressed concern about his monthly demands for funds from Lower Yemen. Further criticism of his taxation policy came from Muhammad al-Ghurbani at Barat, but in 1675 the levies on Lower Yemen were redoubled (ibid. 82). Under Muhammad Ahmad, 'He of al-Mawahib'\" (1687-1718), the exactions became more severe still, in support of a grandiose court and a large standing army complete with slave soldiers (ibid., Zabarah 1958: 451, 457; alShawkani 1929: ii. 98).' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 200§REF§ Shaykhs also collected funds from landholdings: 'Whatever setbacks they suffered, however, Bayt al-Ahmar were not displaced permanently. In the year after Abu 'Alamah's rising, when the Sharif of Abu 'Arish and a rival claimant to the Imamate were active in the north-west, they were again a power to be reckoned with.\" Certainly they collected taxes as well as rents in the nineteenth century, and local memory credits them with taking revenue even from coastal towns in the north Tihamah, They retain considerable lands in the west to the present day.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 206§REF§ 'Nor were Bayt al-Ahrnar of Hashid the only shaykhly family in the area: Nasir juzaylan of Dhu Muhammad lost forts to Abu 'Alamah at al-Masiih, and a garrison from Dhii Husayn were chased out of al-Sha'iq in Bani 'Awam (again near Hajjah), but the shaykhly families of Barat retained or re-established a hold there. Al al-Shayif of Dhfi Husayn, for example, still own land in Hajjah province, and Bayt Hubaysh of Sufyan have considerable holdings near al-Mahwit (Tutwiler 1987). The picture which emerges between the lines of eighteenth-century histories and tariijim is of myriad forts in the western mountains, each garrisoned by twenty or thirty tribal soldiers and controlling an area for some shaykh of the northern plateau. As the eighteenth century wears on, so the same pattern comes more clearly to light in Lower Yemen too: in his entry for 1752, for example, al-jirafi records for the first time what will punctuate his history thereafter, Barat tribesmen at odds with the Imam south of San'a' (al-jirafi 195I: 183). They continued to appear there into the present century, leaving behind great numbers of tribal families and large shaykhly holdings of land outside tribal territory.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 206p§REF§ 'These shaykhs are not the subject of Imamic history. Although the Imamate could not have functioned as it did without them, and although the granting of 'fiefs' to them went on for centuries, the details of their financial and administrative position are nowhere written up. Nor has local documentation come to light. Until it does, we must form what estimate we can by looking at the great shaykhly houses nowadays.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 209§REF§ Taxation and stipends were a major bone of contention between imams and tribes: 'Al-Mutawakkil al-Qasim then took the Imamate (Serjeant 1983: 84), and at this stage al-Ahmar was apparently on good terms with al-Husayn, the new Imam's son (Zabarah 1941: 539); but when alNasir Muhammad made a rival claim in 1723 al-Ahrnar and many other shaykhs went over to him. The leading sayyids were meanwhile divided among themselves over the perennial problem of taxation (ibid. 289). In 1726 the Dhayban section of Arhab cut the roads, and a group of them made trouble in San'a' itself (Zabarah 1958: 359). The Imam had them hunted through the streets, in response to which \"Arhab tribesmen invited Hashid and Bakil to join them in taking revenge and wiping out the dishonour they had sustained. The tribes responded. 'All b. Qasim al-Ahmar, Paramount Shaykh of Hashid, and Nasir b. juzaylan, Paramount Shaykh of Bakil, proceeded to 'Amran where they met al-Husayn, the Imam's son, whom they persuaded to join them ... (al]iriifi 1951: 181, trans. Stookey 1978: 151-2).' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 203§REF§ Dresch mentions tax registers: 'From the summary histories one forms an impression of steadily increasing disorder through the next twenty years, until 'the people of San'a' and others' invited the Turks again to take the city 'after they had tired of the chaos which prevailed there, the dominion of men from the tribes, the cutting of the roads, and the lack of any ordered security' (al-jirafi 1951: 205-6). A more recently available, and more detailed, source gives a different impression (al-Hibshi 19 80: 29 6 ff.). But the Turks seem in any case to have had designs on the highlands: they had increased their forces on the coast 'until stores were coming ashore with San'a' printed on every load' (ibid. 315), and when they finally arrived, in 1872, they demanded the tax registers which would reveal to them the administration and resources of the whole country (al-Wasi'I 1928: IIO). They were to remain in highland Yemen until 19 18.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 217§REF§ More details on the currency used may be needed. Dresch mentions Riyals in his discussion of stipends: 'Hasan al-'Ansi and the Barat tribes appeared outside San'a' in 1770. They were successfully driven off, which provoked some vainglorious poetry from the victors (Serjeant 1983: 86; d. alShawkani 1929: i. 459), but elsewhere al-Shawkani suggests (ibid. ii. 136) how this was achieved: an addition to the tribesmen's stipend of 20,000 riyals per annum, the implication being that they already received regular payment. These incursions and payments continued for several decades.P and the Barat tribes remained active in Lower Yemen until the Turks took the area in the late nineteenth century.' §REF§Dresch, Paul 1989. \"Tribes, Government and History in Yemen\", 213§REF§" }, { "id": 354, "polity": { "id": 368, "name": "ye_rasulid_dyn", "long_name": "Rasulid Dynasty", "start_year": 1229, "end_year": 1453 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The first Rasulid Sultan, Nur al-Din, \"asserted his independence by striking coins in his own name\".§REF§(Stookey 1978, 108) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.§REF§" }, { "id": 355, "polity": { "id": 372, "name": "ye_tahirid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Tahirid Dynasty", "start_year": 1454, "end_year": 1517 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " ‘The currency system of the Yemen during the Tahirid period was silver based as it had been under the Rasulids.’ §REF§Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 153, Available at Durham E-Theses Online: <a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/</a>§REF§ mint present for producing coins §REF§Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 166, Available at Durham E-Theses Online: <a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/</a>§REF§" }, { "id": 356, "polity": { "id": 365, "name": "ye_warlords", "long_name": "Yemen - Era of Warlords", "start_year": 1038, "end_year": 1174 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"Whether specimens of the 438 Rayy issue could have reached the Yemen by the following year, there to serve as models for the Najahid coinage, seems to me highly questionable, although there is evidence, architectural and epigraphic, to support the theory of a strong cultural link between Iran and the Yemen in the 11th century a.d.\"§REF§(? 1990, 190) Nicholas M Lowick. Joe Cribb. ed. 1990. Coinage and History of the Islamic World. Variorum Reprints.§REF§" }, { "id": 357, "polity": { "id": 607, "name": "si_early_modern_interior", "long_name": "Early Modern Sierra Leone", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following implies the absence of an indigenous coinage system. \"[F]rom the turn of the century, to the ‘mosaic of currencies’, which included the Sierra Leone Company coinage and the iron bars system, could be added silver Spanish dollars, Mexican dollars, French five-franc pieces and Maria Theresa thalers as well as gold Spanish American doubloons (or ‘pieces of eight’), American five-dollar and French twenty-franc pieces. By the 1820s, however relatively small in amounts, the Spanish dollar had become the principal foreign currency across the coastal region.\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 199-201) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 358, "polity": { "id": 609, "name": "si_freetown_1", "long_name": "Freetown", "start_year": 1787, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \" The chronic shortages of silver coins in Freetown then provided a very early opportunity for the directors of the Sierra Leone Company to commission their own new currency for the settlement. They argued in a despatch to the superintendent and Council for the Settlement (circa 1791) that the community required a more ‘exact’ and ‘portable’ medium of value that would contribute to increasing commercial transactions and improve the circulation of goods. Thedirectors recognised the powerful potential of territorial currencies in claiming that introducing a Sierra Leone Company money medium would help to promote their views of ‘commerce, cultivation and civilisation’. The specific designs on the coins (see below) were intended to spread their moral messages more widely as they circulated. In 1792 the Soho Mint of Birmingham received an order for one-dollar silver pieces and one-penny copper pieces. Eight hundred dollar pieces and 200,000 one-penny pieces were coined. The amount of one-penny pieces commissioned was ambitious though, considering that the colony’s population numbered just under 2,000 inhabitants and that the coins’ value was too high to be used in local market transactions. Within two months of the coins’ arrival in Freetown in 1793 a new order was placed for a token coinage of one dollar (100 cents), half a dollar (50 cents), 20 cents, tencent and one-cent pieces.\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 200) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 359, "polity": { "id": 630, "name": "sl_polonnaruva", "long_name": "Polonnaruwa", "start_year": 1070, "end_year": 1255 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “One of the most notable features in the economic history of the period extending from the ninth century to the end of the Polonnaruva kingdom was the expansion of trade within the country. The date available at is present is too meagre for an analysis of the development of this trade, or indeed for a detailed description of its special characteristics, but there is evidence of the emergence of merchant ‘corporations’, the growth of market towns linked by well-known trade routes, and the development of a local, that is to say, regional coinage.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 71-72) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 360, "polity": { "id": 632, "name": "nl_dutch_emp_1", "long_name": "Dutch Empire", "start_year": 1648, "end_year": 1795 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"The country inherited the monetary system from the Burgundy–Habsburg administration in the Low Countries. The national parliament attempted to regulate the money circulation by supervising the minting of coins, by deciding which foreign coins were admitted in the country and by setting the rate at which the coins would circulate.\"§REF§(Wolters 2008: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UT69DCSD/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 361, "polity": { "id": 669, "name": "ni_hausa_k", "long_name": "Hausa bakwai", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Purchases of land, slaves, and major commodities were made using a single or combination of currencies such as kola nuts, stamped gold coins (mithqal), and cowry shells. The mithqal was made from gold imported from Bonduku (in present-day Ivory Coast) and minted. It was used extensively along trade routes between central Nigerian kingdoms and the Hausa Kingdoms.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 90. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/search/dictionary/titleCreatorYear/items/SJAIVKDW/item-list§REF§" }, { "id": 362, "polity": { "id": 670, "name": "ni_bornu_emp", "long_name": "Kanem-Borno", "start_year": 1380, "end_year": 1893 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Copper currency: “In Bornu, where cowries were introduced as an act of state in the middle of the nineteenth century, the counting system is unique, having some affinities with both the northern and the southern systems. Apparently it derived, in part, from a pre-existing system of counting copper coinage. Bornu cowries were counted in groups of four, and in so-called 'rotl' (pounds) of 32 cowries. The Ibo, on the lower Niger, also had a unique system of counting cowries, with a basic unit of six cowries which is not found elsewhere.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§ “In Bornu, where cowries were introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century along with the Maria Theresa dollar, a different system of counting was in use. The unit of count was the rotl, an Arabic word meaning a pound weight; this unit is believed to have belonged to the copper coinage which was minted in Bornu in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. […] The actual counting of cowries in Bornu was done in groups of four, not in fives as elsewhere in northern West Africa; it is probable that this method of counting goes back to the small copper coins of Bornu.” §REF§Johnson, M. (1970). The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa. Part I. The Journal of African History, 11(1), 17–49: 42. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/XZMB8INB/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 363, "polity": { "id": 683, "name": "ug_buganda_k_2", "long_name": "Buganda II", "start_year": 1717, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 364, "polity": { "id": 684, "name": "ug_toro_k", "long_name": "Toro", "start_year": 1830, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 365, "polity": { "id": 685, "name": "ug_buganda_k_1", "long_name": "Buganda I", "start_year": 1408, "end_year": 1716 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 366, "polity": { "id": 687, "name": "Early Niynginya", "long_name": "Kingdom of Nyinginya", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 367, "polity": { "id": 689, "name": "rw_ndorwa_k", "long_name": "Ndorwa", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 368, "polity": { "id": 690, "name": "bu_burundi_k", "long_name": "Burundi", "start_year": 1680, "end_year": 1903 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 369, "polity": { "id": 691, "name": "rw_mubari_k", "long_name": "Mubari", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 370, "polity": { "id": 692, "name": "rw_gisaka_k", "long_name": "Gisaka", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 371, "polity": { "id": 694, "name": "rw_bugesera_k", "long_name": "Bugesera", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1799 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 372, "polity": { "id": 695, "name": "ug_nkore_k_2", "long_name": "Nkore", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1901 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 373, "polity": { "id": 696, "name": "tz_buhayo_k", "long_name": "Buhaya", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1890 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"No single currency was in general use. Buhaya used cowrie shells, Ujiji employed special beads, and Pare utilised maize cobs, but none had a fixed value elsewhere.\"§REF§(Iliffe 1979: 68) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 374, "polity": { "id": 697, "name": "in_pandya_emp_2", "long_name": "Pandya Dynasty", "start_year": 590, "end_year": 915 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Recently one gold coin was published as an issue of the early Pandyas. The coin has two fish on one side and the legend ‘Sri Varaguna’ingrantha characters on the other side. This is assigned to Varaguna II (862-880 AD).” §REF§ (Soundaram 2011, 78) Soundaram, A. 2011. ‘The Characteristic Features of Early Medieval Tamil Society: An Overview’ In History of People and Their Environs: Essays in Honour of Prof. B.S. Chanrababu Edited by S. Ganeshram and C. Bhavani. Chennai: Indian Universities Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/CISI5MVX/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 375, "polity": { "id": 698, "name": "in_cholas_1", "long_name": "Early Cholas", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Coins current in the Chola territory during this period have been discovered at Kaveripattinam. They are big sized square copper coins with the Chola emblem of tiger on one side and an elephant on the other.” §REF§ (Raman 1976, 55) Raman, K.V. 1976. ‘Archaeology of the Sangam Age’. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol 37. Pp 50-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/M3ZPI56I/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 376, "polity": { "id": 699, "name": "in_thanjavur_maratha_k", "long_name": "Thanjavur Maratha Kingdom", "start_year": 1675, "end_year": 1799 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “With a payment of 700,000 rupees Pratap Singh was able to make the Nawab lift the siege.” §REF§ (Lieban 2018, 57) Lieban, Heike. 2018. Cultural Encounters in India: The Local Co-workers of Tranquebar Mission, 18th to 19th Centuries. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/32CRNR7U/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 377, "polity": { "id": 702, "name": "in_pallava_emp_2", "long_name": "Late Pallava Empire", "start_year": 300, "end_year": 890 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Most people bartered for goods although government-issued coins circulated in the later Pallava period. Merchants exported goods such as spices, cotton cloth and clothing, and gemstones to other Asian countries.” §REF§ (Bush Trevino 2012, 46) Bush Travino, Macella. 2012. ‘The Pallava Dynasty’ In Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia and Africa: An Encyclopedia. Vol.4 Edited by Carolyn M. Elliot. Los Angeles: Sage. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4RPCX448/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 378, "polity": { "id": 703, "name": "in_kalabhra_dyn", "long_name": "Kalabhra Dynasty", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 600 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “The Kalabhras who ruled in the far South including Kerala and South Mysore, minted and circulated a large quantity of copper coins from about 250 A.D. to the middle of the sixth century A.D. On early issues of the tribe we have the figures of tiger, elephant, horse and the fish. In rare specimens a seated Jain Muni or a swastika sign or the short sword or the symbol of Manjusri are seen. The Prakrit inscription on the other side of the coin in Brahmi script reads invariably Acuvikanta Kalabhra.” §REF§ (Gupta 1989, 23) Gupta, Parmanand. 1989. Geography from Ancient Indian Coins and Seals. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/5Z4TFP7P/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 379, "polity": { "id": 704, "name": "in_thanjavur_nayaks", "long_name": "Nayaks of Thanjavur", "start_year": 1532, "end_year": 1676 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “In this period, generally four kinds of incomes are referred to Dharmasanam, the income from charities was the first kind. Manorarthy was the second, which implied the tax on land. Karaithurai was the third one. Which means the contract money for using the ports by the foreign trading companies. The English Factory records inform that Ragunatha Nayak demanded seven thousand Rial as Karaithurai from the British. Five thousand Chakkarams were collected for Nagai [Nagaputtinam] port from the Dutch. The fourth one was ‘Sungam’ or tolls which was levied on merchandise imported into or exported from local places. Ragunathan Nayak collected eighteen thousand madai (a kind of money) as a toll tax.” §REF§ (Chinnaiyan 2005-2006, 457) Chinnaiyan, S. 2005-2006. ‘Tax Structure in Tanjore Kingdom under the Nayaks and Marathas (A.D. 1532- 1799)’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 66. Pp 456-459. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/8WJRSDG6/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 380, "polity": { "id": 705, "name": "in_madurai_nayaks", "long_name": "Nayaks of Madurai", "start_year": 1529, "end_year": 1736 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Between 1659-1660 and 1689-1690, silver bullion was sold by the Dutch at their local factories from prices ranging from 83.25 and 94 Madurai fanams per mark (1 mark = ca. 243.5 grams), while gold bullion fetched 1, 200 to 1, 330 fanams per mark. The so-called Dutch negotiepenningen or ‘commercial coins’ such as silver leeuwendaalders, rijksdaalders, bankdaalders, and ducatons were sold for 8.62 fanams (leeuwendaalders) to 11.5-11.75 fanams (ducatons).” §REF§ (Vink 2015, 180) Vink, Markus. 2015. Encounters on the Opposite Coast: The Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/9U7MCK4E/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 381, "polity": { "id": 668, "name": "ni_nri_k", "long_name": "Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì", "start_year": 1043, "end_year": 1911 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Umumu (minted iron money) may have been used. “It would appear that by the eighteenth century much of the commercial transactions in Igboland were done in money. Using information gathered in the nineteenth century and early this century, one would discover that many currencies were used in pre-colonial Igboland. These included salt, umumu, cowries, manillas, brass rods and copper wires. […] information available to the present writer would tend to show that as much as one or two currencies might be dominant in one part, there was no area of Igboland where any of them would not have been recognized and used as money.” §REF§ Afigbo, A. E. (1981). Economic Foundations of Pre-Colonial Igbo Society. In Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (pp. 124–144). University Press in association with Oxford University Press; 139. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5I5XITDA/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 382, "polity": { "id": 700, "name": "in_pandya_emp_1", "long_name": "Early Pandyas", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote discusses weight measurements of gold coins during the Sangam period in Tamil Nadu suggesting that indigenous coins were likely present. “Kanam was a measure of gold (coin?), very small in size. Pons referred to perhaps the same measure as kanam.” §REF§ (Agnihotri 1988, 355) Agnihotri, V.K. 1988. Indian History. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PNX9XBJQ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 383, "polity": { "id": 608, "name": "gm_kaabu_emp", "long_name": "Kaabu", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"Initially, therefore, a North African coinage standard would have been established in the gold trade. But few gold coins penetrated south of the Sahara; they did not form the ordinary currency, and weights for coins were little used in the Sahel towns.\"§REF§(Garrard 1982: 455) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IVG2H488/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 384, "polity": { "id": 616, "name": "si_pre_sape", "long_name": "Pre-Sape Sierra Leone", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 385, "polity": { "id": 617, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_2", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red II and III", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. \"By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 30)§REF§" }, { "id": 386, "polity": { "id": 618, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_4", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red IV", "start_year": 1401, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. \"By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 30)§REF§" }, { "id": 387, "polity": { "id": 621, "name": "si_sape", "long_name": "Sape", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 388, "polity": { "id": 656, "name": "ni_yoruba_classic", "long_name": "Classical Ife", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests that strings, \"standard measurements of beads\" and possibly glass beads were used as \"money\". \"Given their quality as a high-value and low-bulk commodity, long-distance travelers likely carried Ifè glass beads across the Yorùbá world and the adjacent areas as a means of payment for provisions on their journeys. The durability and affective qualities of these dichroic beads, especially the most common sègi, and the guarantee of their supply and demand encouraged people to use them as a means of high-value exchange and for storing wealth. We are short of evidence on whether glass beads evolved to serve as a standard currency, especially as a means of pricing. However, strings and other standard measurements of beads were likely used for purchasing high-value products and services.\" §REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 107-108)§REF§" }, { "id": 389, "polity": { "id": 665, "name": "ni_aro", "long_name": "Aro", "start_year": 1690, "end_year": 1902 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " No reference to any indigenous coins being present, only traded items, slaves and brass rods. There may have been other forms of local currency, so can’t be certain. “From another historian we get the reasons for the Aro Expedition as follows: “Reasons for the war advanced by Sir Ralph Moore, the British High Commissioner of the Nigerian Coast Protectorate, included: To put a stop to slave dealing and the slave trade generally with a view to the Slave Dealing Proclamation No. 5 of 1901 being enforced throughout the entire territories as from first of January next; to abolish the Juju hierarchy of the Aro tribe, which by superstition and fraud causes much injustice among the coast tribes generally and is opposed to the establishment of Government. The power of the priesthood is also employed in obtaining natives for sale as slaves and it is essential to finally break it; to open up the country of the entire Aro to civilization; to induce the natives to engage in legitimate trade; to introduce a currency in lieu of slaves, brass rods, and other forms of native currency and to facilitate trade transactions; to eventually establish a labour market as a substitute to the present system of slavery”” §REF§Innocent, Rev. (2020). A Critical Study on the Ibini Ukpabi (Arochukwu Long Juju) Oracle and its Implications on the International Relations During the 20th Century. London Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, 20(10): 8. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ZXZGZSM3/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 390, "polity": { "id": 672, "name": "ni_benin_emp", "long_name": "Benin Empire", "start_year": 1140, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote suggests that the main form of currency was cowrie shells. “The reign of Oba Esigie witnessed the increasing monetisation of the enclave economy (cowries), and provided the opportunity for the development of \"institutionalized mechanisms of exploitation\" (Belasco 1980, 81-82). The palace control of cowries and the elite domination of commercial development in the administrative and economic enclaves provided the final element in the emergence of the dual economy. The capital and commercial centres had developed highly sophisticated and well-organised monetary exchange systems. However, the vassal villages in the empire remained relatively static, with little circulation of either commercial consumer goods or currency forms (cowries or manillas).” §REF§Sargent, R. A. (1986). From A Redistribution to an Imperial Social Formation: Benin c.1293-1536. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, 20(3), 402–427: 421. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/AUEZSTBR/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 391, "polity": { "id": 686, "name": "tz_karagwe_k", "long_name": "Karagwe", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1916 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The literature suggests that culturally related and geographically adjacent polities in the Great Lakes region did not use coins as currency: barter was a common form of exchange, as was the use of tokens (e.g. ivory discs, cowrie shells) and articles (e.g. iron objects). In the case of Rwanda: \"Neighbors exchanged goods by barter. Hunters, farmers, and herders exchanged game, leather goods, honey, sorghum, beans, milk, and butter, among other things. Iron objects and hoes above all were preferably exchanged for goats and if possible cattle, but sometimes also for the goods we have just enumerated. Indeed, the hoe was probably already the standard of value as it was in the nineteenth century.\"§REF§(Vansina 2004: 30) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5J4MRHUB/collection.§REF§ In the case of Buganda: \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 122, 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 392, "polity": { "id": 570, "name": "es_spanish_emp_2", "long_name": "Spanish Empire II", "start_year": 1716, "end_year": 1814 }, "year_from": 1716, "year_to": 1814, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": "“The passing of the imperial age is surely symbolised by the transition from the peso—the ‘piece of eight’ (that is, eight reals, or ten after 1728) —to the little peseta of two reals, a silver coin which could pay a labourer’s wages for half a day. That is, silver no longer flowed abroad so much in payments to bankers and soldiers but could be used at home; so vellón could be partly phased out, and from 1680 its face value was reduced by three-quarters. This stabilisation of the currency no doubt fostered the revival of the Spanish economy in the eighteenth century, contributing to a spread of the internal market. Silver coins themselves, of course, were notoriously vulnerable to hoarding and theft, and the growth of the economy also depended on some extension of credit facilities.”<ref>(Casey 2002: 70) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT</ref>" }, { "id": 393, "polity": { "id": 620, "name": "bf_mossi_k_1", "long_name": "Mossi", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": 1100, "year_to": 1750, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "The following information strictly applies to the period immediately preceding colonisation. \"Cowries and cotton bands were used as currency.\"§REF§(Englebert 2018: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/52JWRCUI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 394, "polity": { "id": 620, "name": "bf_mossi_k_1", "long_name": "Mossi", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": 1751, "year_to": 1897, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following information strictly applies to the period immediately preceding colonisation. \"Cowries and cotton bands were used as currency.\"§REF§(Englebert 2018: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/52JWRCUI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 395, "polity": { "id": 649, "name": "et_funj_sultanate", "long_name": "Funj Sultanate", "start_year": 1504, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": 1504, "year_to": 1699, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote states that the Funj Sultanate created their own imperial mint in the eighteenth century. “While Funj still knew no (official) coins or currencies in the early seventeenth century beyond the market of Sinnar and the harbour of Suakin, with the exception of gold in form of gold dust or braclets, (Spanish) silver coins (from American mines) increasingly entered the empire in the seventeenth century. This led to an accelerated export of gold and the establishment of silver coins in regional and even local markets in the eighteenth century, when silver replaced textiles and salt as currencies of exchange. This led to an even stronger import of small silver coins and the development of an imperial mint. In the late eighteenth century, the Spanish silver peso had become the major currency.” §REF§ (Loimeier 2013, 148) Loimeier, Roman. 2013. Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HJTAUHA9/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 396, "polity": { "id": 649, "name": "et_funj_sultanate", "long_name": "Funj Sultanate", "start_year": 1504, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": 1700, "year_to": 1820, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote states that the Funj Sultanate created their own imperial mint in the eighteenth century. “While Funj still knew no (official) coins or currencies in the early seventeenth century beyond the market of Sinnar and the harbour of Suakin, with the exception of gold in form of gold dust or braclets, (Spanish) silver coins (from American mines) increasingly entered the empire in the seventeenth century. This led to an accelerated export of gold and the establishment of silver coins in regional and even local markets in the eighteenth century, when silver replaced textiles and salt as currencies of exchange. This led to an even stronger import of small silver coins and the development of an imperial mint. In the late eighteenth century, the Spanish silver peso had become the major currency.” §REF§ (Loimeier 2013, 148) Loimeier, Roman. 2013. Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HJTAUHA9/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 397, "polity": { "id": 280, "name": "hu_hun_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of the Huns", "start_year": 376, "end_year": 469 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " “Similarly, since the Huns minted no coins, it might reasonably be expected that the numismatic evidence would be slight. This is indeed the case, but from the distribution of Roman coins found in some of the territories once ruled by the nomads it does seem possible to draw one or two inferences.”§REF§(Thompson 2004: 9) Thompson, E.A. 1996. The Huns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/49W8PAAS§REF§" }, { "id": 398, "polity": { "id": 569, "name": "mx_mexico_1", "long_name": "Early United Mexican States", "start_year": 1810, "end_year": 1920 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “In 1810, at the beginning of his armed struggle, Miguel Hidalgo proceeded to mint coins in Guanajuato. Although the colonial government soon confiscated his minting equipment, before the end of the decade similar coinage practices—legal or illegal—were evident in various regional entities in response to the scarcity of silver money.”§REF§(Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 31) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV§REF§ “As soon as the most turbulent stages of the revolution were over, the economy began to recover. The recovery was preceded by the end of hyperinflation. A return to the gold standard in 1916 provided the basis for rapid stabilization of prices. Two factors were behind the monetary stabilization. Cárdenas and Manns (1987), following Kemmerer (1940), argue that, as notes in circulation progressively lost the functions of money, a reversion of Gresham’s law took place with notes (“bad money”) being replaced by gold and silver (“good money”)… In any case, the government’s decision meant that notes would not function as a means of payment, thus acting as a monetary reform that stabilized prices in terms of the newly circulating coins. Paper money would not circulate again in large amounts until the end of 1931.”§REF§(Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 74-75) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV§REF§" }, { "id": 399, "polity": { "id": 579, "name": "gb_england_plantagenet", "long_name": "Plantagenet England", "start_year": 1154, "end_year": 1485 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Silver pennies were the most common coin. Halfpennies and farthings were minted by Edward I but were uncommon. Gold coins were first minted under Edward III; Florins in 1344 and Nobles in 1351.§REF§(Prestwich 2005: xxiii) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI§REF§" }, { "id": 400, "polity": { "id": 568, "name": "cz_bohemian_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Bohemia - Luxembourgian and Jagiellonian Dynasty", "start_year": 1310, "end_year": 1526 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Indigenous_coin", "indigenous_coin": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Kutná Hora took on this leading role from the end of the 13th century, and by the beginning of the next century it was the main mint of the country for the production of Czech groschen. Since the profit from the mining of precious metals and minting of coins was one of the ruler’s rights, the coffers of the Luxemburgs were enriched, enabling them to finance their policies, both at home and abroad, as well as undertake new construction work and cultural enterprises.”§REF§(Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ§REF§ “Royal towns were entrusted to the chamberlain or, in the case of mining towns, the master of the mint. When a rich silver lode was discovered at Kutna Hora, the town grew rapidly. German mining experts and workers arrived in great numbers, and in 1300, Vaclav II established a centralized royal mint there. Imported Italian master minters helped create an entirely new coin, with a standard purity and weight, called the Prague gros. This coin would remain the foundation of Bohemia’s currency for centuries.”§REF§(Agnew 2004: 21) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI§REF§" } ] }