A post from Alt-M about the first American currency and its replacement with silver coins.
Wampum shells worked for Native Americans because tribal tradition did not include their mass production. Colonialists used it to trade with Native Americans but soon replaced it with silver coinage. Wiki explains Wampum, I had completely forgot about it:
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of American Indians. It includes the white shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell, and the white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam.Wampum was used by the northeastern Indian tribes as a form of gift exchange, and the colonists adopted it as currency in trading with them. Eventually, the colonists developed more efficient methods of producing wampum, which caused inflation and ultimately the obsolescence of it as currency.Wampum was often kept on strings like Chinese cash. Before European contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events. Early wampum treaties made with the first European colonizers, such as the Two Row Wampum, were peace and friendship treaties to set out the parameters of a new relationship. According to the Onondaga Nation, the wampum is a living record and has many uses. These can include inviting a person to a meeting, showing title, and showing that a speaker is truthful. At the Treaty of Niagara in 1764, at least 84 wampum belts were exchanged.
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