China - Clay cowrie - Museum Gallery

April 2024

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There are several types of baked clay imitation cowries. This one is distinctive because the top edge has a pattern on both sides that appears like a sine wave with dots filling the spaces. It's 31 x 21 x 7 mm at 3.98 g.

I was the lucky winner in Kagin's Auction (Mar 2021) Lot# 4233. It consisted of 19 examples that were previously in the Nate S Shapiro Collection and displayed at the Detroit Money Museum. These were acquired before 1960 but were sold when the Museum closed (~1992). In ancient China cowrie seashells (Cyprea Moneta & C. Annulus) were so valuable that imitations were made to serve as money and grave items.
This very rare example is unusually large and beautiful. It appears to be fashioned out of green jadeite, which is to say JADE!. It's 75 mm long, 41.5 mm wide, and 20 mm thick, it weights 72.5 grams. It features the carved 'teeth' of a natural cowrie but this example also shows a carving on the back which is a large circle with a 'X' through it that has serifs at the two ends that are visible.
All of the number tags, unfortunately glued to most of the specimens in the museum collection, are a characteristic of all Charles Opitz collection pieces.

Moneta Library has articles on Cowries to VIEW and DOWNLOAD:
The Worlds's First Money, Chinese Cowries and Their Imitations - by Ted Puls [ link ]
Cowries - Bob Reis: [ link ]
Origin of Cowries in Ancient China - UofPa: [ link ]
Metallic Cowries - Royal Asiatic Society: [ link ]
Nice Video on Cowrie history: [ link ]