Vila Wolf's Dyslexic Folklorist Ranting

The Rent is Due…

Ancient Babylonian bill for rent written in cuneiform.  Dated to 542 BC, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bronze Knife-Money coin

AD 7

Xin Dynasty

(Source: The British Museum)

Probably won’t fit in your wallet —- The Kissi Penny

Throughout human history various items have been used as an exchange and measure of wealth.  Gold, silver, precious gems, silk, cocoa beans, shells, each culture has used many different items that were considered to have value as money.

While Europe and Asia measured wealth in terms of gold and silver, pre-colonial Africa measured wealth in terms of iron.  In the west iron may be a cheap metal but in sub-Sahara Africa iron was a rare metal.  While Africa is known for very beautiful and elaborate gold working, it is a very easy metal to work with having a low melting point and high malleability.  Iron was much harder to work with and Africa lacked the technology to work iron to the extent of ironworking in Europe and Asia.  As a result iron was comparatively rare and only produced by highly skilled master metalworkers.  This rarity gave iron a value comparative to silver in many other parts of the world.

On the West African coast in modern day Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia tribes living in the region fashioned their iron into a very convenient form of currency called the “kissi penny”.  The kissi penny was a long twisted iron rod shaped like a “T” with a small disc fashioned on the opposite end.  Sizes of the kissi penny ranged from 9 to 16 inches, with longer rods having higher values.  For larger transactions  kissi pennies would be bundled and tied together, much like one places bills in a money clip.  Around the late 1800’s one hundred kissi pennies was enough to buy a cow, two hundred could purchase a virgin bride, and three hundred or more could buy a slave.

When Europeans colonized Africa in the 19th century the kissi penny continued as a form of currency, being used simultaneously with European paper money and gold or silver.  Despite being banned by the British and French in the 1930’s kissi pennies continued to be used up to the 1960’s until they were replaced with more convenient paper money.  While kissi pennies are no longer used as currency today, they are still occasionally used in religious rights and ceremonies.

The world’s oldest banknote: a piece of art

What looks like a great piece of art, a mixture of stylistic forms, is in actuality the oldest surviving banknote. The Chinese were printing text centuries before Gutenberg introduced the printed book in the West. What they also printed well before such was done in Europe was banknotes. This one dates from c. 1375 and is the earliest banknote that survives today. It’s made of mulberry bark and looks kind of attractive in its simplicity. “Great Ming precious money. For circulation throughout the empire,” it reads in Chinese characters. The note measures 340x222 mm, a fist taller than an iPad. Printing money may have been innovative in the medieval world, and the result quite artistic, carrying the bills around was not particularly convenient unless you had a super-size wallet.

More information from the British Museum: this written piece and this movie.

20 Franc Napoleon I gold coin, struck in 1808

Blanc guénard, Charles VI, Sainte-Menehould, 4ème émission

@credits

Charles VI allowed coins to be hammered in Sainte Menehould in 1392. But the industry was transfered in Châlons in 1412

Louis d’or - Louis XIII

@credits

The Louis d’or is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was replaced by the French franc at the time of the revolution, although a limited number were also minted during the “Bourbon Restoration” under Louis XVIII. The actual value of the coins fluctuated according to monetary and fiscal policy (see livre tournois), but in 1726 the value was stabilized.

((I’m having fun guys… ))

Twenty loads of peat, six bushels of coal, four tar barrels: 90 shillings, 6 pence

Getting charged for your own burning at the stake: PRICELESS

For hundred of years, accused witches were billed for the clergymen, judges, physicians, torturers, guards, scribes, and laborers involved in their trials, including charges for their own torture and execution.

From our latest Roundtable, “Gold and Silver Coined From Human Blood”

Four More Really, Really, Really Rich Dead Guys

Musa I of Mali (c. 1280 - c. 1337) was the mansa/emperor of the Malian Empire, which was famous for its wealth and precious metals - especially gold. Though it is difficult to estimate his immense wealth in modern terms, contemporary accounts translate the extent of his riches quite well. When he made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, Musa brought with him thousands of silk-clad slaves, hundreds of whom were also carrying golden staffs. On dozens of camels, Musa brought thousands of pounds of gold, which he distributed to the poor and flooded the markets of Cairo with. 

Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) Like John D. Rockefeller, Carnegie was a Gilded Age industrialist whose efforts greatly expanded American industry. He founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which was later combined into J.P. Morgan’s U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion dollar company; from this buyout, Carnegie received a share of $225 million, or over $6 billion in today’s money. At the time of this death, Carnegie had donated $350 million (nearly $5 billion, adjusted for inflation) of his own wealth to charities and philanthropic efforts. Forbes puts his estimated net worth at $298 billion.

Mir Osman Ali Khan (April 6, 1886 – February 24, 1967) As Nizam of the former state of Hyderabad, he was reputed to be the richest man in the world in the 1930s and 40s. He is number five on Forbes’s All Time Wealthiest list, with a net worth of $210.8 billion, adjusted for inflation. He reportedly used the Jacob Diamond - one of the largest in the world - as a paperweight. He own many lavish palaces across Hyderabad, including the Falaknuma Palace, which received the monarchs of the United Kingdom and Russia, among others, as guests. His private treasury was said to hold gold and silver bullion worth £100m and four times that much in jewels. He also owned dozens of luxury cars with a special preference for Rolls-Royces. 

John Jacob Astor (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) This German-American businessman was the country’s first multi-millionaire. In the early 1800s, his trust - the American Fur Company - monopolized America’s fur trade; when fur went out of fashion by the mid-1800s, Astor invested instead in Manhattan real estate. His net worth in present-day dollars, when calculated as a fraction of the U.S. GDP, is estimated at $110 billion.

A rare Royal Britain note featuring the profile of Louis XVII, or Louis Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Made in late 1793.

Left picture : Médaille des camisards Monnaie suédoise trouvée sur quelques camisards, utilisée pour prétendre à la collusion des camisards avec l’étranger. - N170A - N170B - Musée du Désert (Camisard’s medal - swedish crown found on Camisards; used to pretend they were traitors.

Right picture :Insignes des camisards - N170A - N170B - Musée du Désert (insignia of the Camisards)

@credits

Camisards were French Protestants (Huguenots) of the rugged and isolated Cevennes region of south-central France, who raised an insurrection against the persecutions which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The revolt by the Camisards broke out in 1702, with the worst of the fighting through 1704, then scattered fighting until 1710 and a final peace by 1715.

“A 1792 Silver Center Cent is shown on April 18, 2012 in Schaumburg, Illinois. The coin is scheduled to be auctioned by Heritage Auctions on April 19. Online bidding for the coin has already pushed the price over $1 million. The coin, considered the third best example of fourteen known to exist, was last sold at auction in 1974 when it reached a price of $105,000. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)”

[source]

An illustrated folio made for Shah Tahmasp of Persia in the 1500s sold for $12.2 million

Most expensive Islamic art ever sold

This illustration from the Shahnameh, or “Book of Kings,” sold for nearly four times pre-sale expectations to an anonymous telephone bidder during a Sotheby’s auction in London in May 2011.

It is “universally acknowledged as one of the supreme illustrated manuscripts of any period or culture and among the greatest works of art in the world,” according to Art Daily.

The print, in ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper, depicts a scene from the Persian national epic.