Pitt Rivers Museum Anthropology and World Archaology

 

Asia

 

Cowrie shells

India

 

Collected by Richard Carnac Temple

Given to the Museum in 1894

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Cowrie shells have been widely used as a form of currency. Because they are a relatively standard size and shape, their value is easily judged. These cowries were acquired from a banker in the Punjab area of India in the late nineteenth century.

View database record 1894.27.214