Old brass Chinese coins..

[Marbleguy]

I've spent the last year excavating a quarter million pounds of sand and rocks by hand with small tools,running it all thru a sifter and finding thousands of Fur Trade era glass indian trade beads in every color of the rainbow and design imaginable. This is in the deep desert,Mojave desert,Calif. On private property with permission of the owner. All artifacts being given to the local ghost town museum. Well,among the beads are of course large amounts of broken pieces of obsidian and arrowheads,knives,scrapers,etc in various stages of construction. But I'm also finding a number of very old brass Chinese coins. This has me wondering what the heck the indians did with those coins. I found another coin yesterday. Put together an electrolysis device,cleaned the coin. Shines like gold now. So what did the indians do with brass Chinese coins?

 

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[MarkDz]

Sounds like you're doing great work there Marbleguy... keep it up! As for the Chinese coins, I've heard about them being common trade items in the West. My guess would be that the Indians there valued them as decorations, since they're interesting looking and shiny. Plus, many had holes in them, which would make them ideal for stringing onto garments.

 

[Piney]

I too would guess that they hung them from clothes as they would a "tinkler". They'd make noise and look good at the same time. There must have been thousands of them brought here as they turn up in our antique stores around here all the time. Post a pic of the glass beads if you can...that sounds very neat.

 

[Marbleguy]

Um,I hope the pic got thru. I've just about given up trying to post pics at Treasurenet.

 

[Marbleguy]

I'm stunned. The picture got posted. God has suddenly blessed me with a brain after myrid failed attempts to post. I'll try a secoind pic now. Wish me luck. Five minutes later = I failed to complete pic #2. The posting-gods must hate me.