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78-436: Cowrie or cowry ( pl.   cowries ) is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae . The term porcelain derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell ( porcellana ) due to their similar appearance. Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money . It

156-688: A radical . Before the Spring and Autumn period the cowrie was used as a type of trade token awarding access to a feudal lord's resources to a worthy vassal. The Ojibwe aboriginal people in North America use cowrie shells which are called sacred miigis shells or whiteshells in Midewiwin ceremonies, and the Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba , Canada is named after this type of shell. There

234-499: A full monetary economy had developed. Taxes, salaries, and fines were all paid in coins. An average of 220 million coins a year were produced. According to the Book of Han , the Western Han was a wealthy period : The granaries in the cities and the countryside were full and the government treasuries were running over with wealth. In the capital the strings of cash had been stacked up by

312-705: A great variety of sizes and calligraphic styles and are difficult to date and classify exactly, especially with regard to local and unofficial mints. Archaeological evidence now shows that the Ban Liang was first issued in the Warring States period by the State of Qin, possibly as early as 378 BC. A remarkable find was some bamboo tablets amongst which were found regulations (drawn up before 242 BC) concerning metal and cloth money. A thousand coins, good and bad mixed, were to be placed in pen (baskets or jars) and sealed with

390-485: A particularly common name is used varies; some common names have a very local application, while others are virtually universal within a particular language. Some such names even apply across ranges of languages; the word for cat , for instance, is easily recognizable in most Germanic and many Romance languages . Many vernacular names, however, are restricted to a single country and colloquial names to local districts. Some languages also have more than one common name for

468-510: A reintroduction of the spade money in ten denominations. The Six Coins. AD 9–14. The Ten Spades. AD 10–14. According to the History of Han: The people became bewildered and confused, and these coins did not circulate. They secretly used Wu Zhu coins for their purchases. Wang Mang was very concerned at this and issued the following decree: Those who dare to oppose the court system and those who dare to use Wu Zhus surreptitiously to deceive

546-433: A single chemical, such as copper sulfate , which may refer to either copper(I) sulfate or copper(II) sulfate. Sometimes common names are created by authorities on one particular subject, in an attempt to make it possible for members of the general public (including such interested parties as fishermen, farmers, etc.) to be able to refer to one particular species of organism without needing to be able to memorise or pronounce

624-413: A teaching aid in infant schools e.g counting, adding, subtracting. Common name In chemistry , IUPAC defines a common name as one that, although it unambiguously defines a chemical, does not follow the current systematic naming convention, such as acetone , systematically 2-propanone , while a vernacular name describes one used in a lab, trade or industry that does not unambiguously describe

702-795: A while. At first, the dynasty was known as the Western Jin with Luo-yang as its capital; from 317, it ruled as the Eastern Jin from Nanking. The historical records do not mention the specific casting of coins during the Jin dynasty. In the south, reductions in the weights of coins caused great price fluctuations, and cloth and grain were used as substitutes for coins. In the north, numerous independent kingdoms (The Sixteen Kingdoms ) issued some interesting coins. Liang Zao Xin Quan (Chinese: 涼造新泉 ; pinyin: liáng zào xīnquán ; lit. 'Liang Made New Coin')

780-720: Is a find made in Liaoning province in 1984, which consisted of 2,280 Yi Hua round coins, 14 spade coins, and 120 Ming knives. In 1960 in Shandong, 2 Yi Hua round coins were found with 600 Qi round coins and 59 Qi knives. At Luoyang a find was made in 1976 of 116 flat handled spades of various types (Xiangyuan, Lin, Nie, Pingyang, Yu, Anyang, and Gong), 46 Anzang round coins, 1 yuan round coin, and small/sloping shoulder spades from Sanchuan, Wu, Anzang, Dong Zhou, Feng, and Anzhou . These coins were traditionally associated with Qin Shi Huang Di ,

858-486: Is a global system that attempts to denote particular organisms or taxa uniquely and definitively , on the assumption that such organisms or taxa are well-defined and generally also have well-defined interrelationships; accordingly the ICZN has formal rules for biological nomenclature and convenes periodic international meetings to further that purpose. The form of scientific names for organisms, called binomial nomenclature ,

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936-461: Is in these remarks from a book on marine fish: In scientific binomial nomenclature, names commonly are derived from classical or modern Latin or Greek or Latinised forms of vernacular words or coinages; such names generally are difficult for laymen to learn, remember, and pronounce and so, in such books as field guides, biologists commonly publish lists of coined common names. Many examples of such common names simply are attempts to translate

1014-510: Is itself derived from Sanskrit कपर्द ( kaparda ). The shells of cowries are usually smooth and shiny and more or less egg-shaped. The round side of the shell is called the Dorsal Face, whereas the flat under side is called the Ventral Face, which shows a long, narrow, slit-like opening ( aperture ), which is often toothed at the edges. The narrower end of the egg-shaped cowrie shell is

1092-915: Is most abundant in the Indian Ocean , and was collected in the Maldive Islands , in Sri Lanka , along the Indian Malabar coast , in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, in Maluku in the Pacific, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique . Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa , South Asia , and East Asia . In the United States and Mexico , cowrie species inhabit

1170-457: Is often a monetary unit or weight which is normally read as yuan (Chinese: 爰 ; pinyin: yuán ). Pieces are of a very variable size and thickness, and the stamps appear to be a device to validate the whole block, rather than a guide to enable it to be broken up into unit pieces. Some specimens have been reported in copper, lead, or clay. It is probable that these were funeral money , not circulating coinage, as they are found in tombs, but

1248-522: Is some debate about how the Ojibway traded for or found these shells, so far inland and so far north, very distant from the natural habitat. Oral stories and birch bark scrolls seem to indicate that the shells were found in the ground, or washed up on the shores of lakes or rivers. Finding the cowrie shells so far inland could indicate the previous use of them by an earlier tribe or group in the area, who may have obtained them through an extensive trade network in

1326-454: Is superficially similar to the noun-adjective form of vernacular names or common names which were used by non-modern cultures. A collective name such as owl was made more precise by the addition of an adjective such as screech . Linnaeus himself published a flora of his homeland Sweden, Flora Svecica (1745), and in this, he recorded the Swedish common names, region by region, as well as

1404-549: Is supposed, by one modern ethnographic author, to represent a vulva or an eye. On the Fiji Islands, a shell of the golden cowrie or bulikula, Cypraea aurantium , was drilled at the ends and worn on a string around the neck by chieftains as a badge of rank. The women of Tuvalu use cowrie and other shells in traditional handicrafts. Cowrie shells are sometimes used in a way similar to dice , e.g., in board games like Pachisi , Ashta Chamma or in divination (cf. Ifá and

1482-650: Is the Cape dikkop (or "gewone dikkop", not to mention the presumably much older Zulu name "umBangaqhwa"); Burhinus vermiculatus is the "water dikkop". The thick joints in question are not even, in fact, the birds' knees, but the intertarsal joints —in lay terms the ankles. Furthermore, not all species in the genus have "thick knees", so the thickness of the "knees" of some species is not of clearly descriptive significance. The family Burhinidae has members that have various common names even in English, including " stone curlews ", so

1560-463: Is the case with say, ginkgo , okapi , and ratel . Folk taxonomy , which is a classification of objects using common names, has no formal rules and need not be consistent or logical in its assignment of names, so that say, not all flies are called flies (for example Braulidae , the so-called "bee lice") and not every animal called a fly is indeed a fly (such as dragonflies and mayflies ). In contrast, scientific or biological nomenclature

1638-586: The Eastern Wu dynasty (222–280) are known to exist. Occasionally, large hoards of coins have been uncovered. For example, a hoard was discovered in Jiangsu containing 4,000 Tai Qing Feng Le coins and at Zhangpu in Shaanxi , a sealed jar containing 1,000 Ban Liang coins of various weights and sizes, was discovered. The earliest coinage of China was described by Sima Qian , the great historian of c. 100 BCE: With

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1716-512: The Huo Quan currency. One of the reasons, again, that this coin circulated for several years into the succeeding dynasty was, so the chroniclers say, the fact that the character quan (Chinese: 泉 ; pinyin: quán ) in the inscription consisted of the two component parts bai (Chinese: 白 ; pinyin: bái ; lit. 'white') and shui (Chinese: 水 ; pinyin: shuǐ ; lit. 'water'), which happened to be

1794-546: The Nan Qian (Chinese: 男錢 ; pinyin: nán qián ; lit. 'Male Cash'), from the belief that if a woman wore this on her sash, she would give birth to a boy. Eventually, Wang Mang's unsuccessful reforms provoked an uprising, and he was killed by rebels in AD 23. In 220, the Han dynasty came to an end, and was followed by a long period of disunity and civil war, beginning with

1872-660: The Three Kingdoms period, which developed from the divisions within the Han dynasty. These three states were Cao Wei in northern China, Shu Han to the west, and Eastern Wu in the east. The period was the golden age of chivalry in Chinese history, as described in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms . The coinage reflected the unsettled times, with small and token coins predominating. This state only issued Wu Zhu coins. The coins issued by this state were: In

1950-519: The annual customs of Dahomey of Benin ). A number of shells (6 or 7 in Pachisi) are thrown, with those landing aperture upwards indicating the actual number rolled. In Nepal cowries are used for a gambling game, where 16 pieces of cowries are tossed by four different bettors (and sub-bettors under them). This game is usually played at homes and in public during the Hindu festival of Tihar or Deepawali . In

2028-584: The slave trade , introduced huge numbers of Maldivian cowries in Africa. The Ghanaian cedi was named after cowrie shells. Starting over three thousand years ago, cowrie shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency . They were also used as means of exchange in India . The Classical Chinese character for money ( 貝 ) originated as a stylized drawing of a Maldivian cowrie shell. Words and characters concerning money, property or wealth usually have this as

2106-420: The you and zuo groups. By analogy with the wai , this unclear character has been read as nei (Chinese: 内 ; pinyin: nèi ; lit. 'inside') or zhong (Chinese: 中 ; pinyin: zhōng ; lit. 'centre'). The round coin ( 圜 錢 , huánqián , or 圜 金 , huánjīn ), the precursor of the familiar cash coin , circulated in both the spade and knife money areas in

2184-634: The 1860s, a jar of small "goose eye" coins was dug up in Chengdu in Sichuan. It contained Tai Ping Bai Qian, Ding Ping Yi Bai, Zhi Bai, and Zhi Yi coins. This reinforces the supposition that all these coins are near contemporaries, issued by Shu Han. According to the records, in 236 Sun Quan , ruler of Wu, cast the Da Quan Wu Bai, and in 238 the Da Quan Dang Qian coins. The people were called upon to hand over

2262-517: The Atlantic deer cowrie, Macrocypraea cervus . Cowrie shells, especially Monetaria moneta , were used for centuries as currency by native Africans. In his book Marriage and Morals , Bertrand Russell attributed the use of cowrie shells as currency in ancient Egypt to the similarity between shape of the shell and that of female genitalia. After the 1500s, however, the shell's use as currency became even more common. Western nations, chiefly through

2340-573: The Hebrew Language publish from time to time short dictionaries of common name in Hebrew for species that occur in Israel or surrounding countries e.g. for Reptilia in 1938, Osteichthyes in 2012, and Odonata in 2015. Ancient Chinese coinage Ancient Chinese coinage includes some of the earliest known coins. These coins, used as early as the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), took

2418-683: The SSAR switched to an online version with a searchable database. Standardized names for the amphibians and reptiles of Mexico in Spanish and English were first published in 1994, with a revised and updated list published in 2008. A set of guidelines for the creation of English names for birds was published in The Auk in 1978. It gave rise to Birds of the World: Recommended English Names and its Spanish and French companions. The Academy of

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2496-527: The Seal of the Director. At Zhangpu in Shaanxi , just such a sealed jar, containing 1,000 Ban Liang of various weights and sizes, was discovered. 7 Ban Liang were found in a tomb datable to 306 BC. At the beginning of the Western Han dynasty around 200 BC, the people were allowed to cast small light coins known as "elm seed" coins ( 榆 莢 , yú jiá ), as the heavy Qin coins were inconvenient. In 186 BC,

2574-524: The Secretariat for the AFNC. SSA is an accredited Standards Australia (Australia's peak non-government standards development organisation) Standards Development The Entomological Society of America maintains a database of official common names of insects, and proposals for new entries must be submitted and reviewed by a formal committee before being added to the listing. Efforts to standardize English names for

2652-567: The Wu Zhu currency of the Western Han, owing, it is said, to his prejudice to the jin (Chinese: 金 ; pinyin: jīn ; lit. 'gold') radical in the character zhu (Chinese: 銖 ; pinyin: zhū ) of this inscription, which was a component part of the character Liu, the family name of the rulers of the House of Han, whose descendant Wang Mang had just dethroned. And so he introduced

2730-472: The Zhou coins are divided up into categories of knives, spades, and round coins, it is apparent from archaeological finds that most of the various kinds circulated together. A hoard found in 1981, near Hebi in north Henan province, consisted of: 3,537 Gong spades, 3 Anyi arched foot spades, 8 Liang Dang Lie spades, 18 Liang square foot spades and 1,180 Yuan round coins, all contained in three clay jars. Another example

2808-483: The Zhou period, from around 350 BC. Apart from two small and presumably late coins from Qin, coins from the spade money area had a round hole ( 好 , "the good") in the middle of their face ( 肉 , "the meat") and were denominated in yǐn ( 釿 ) in the central plain and liǎng ( 兩 ) in Qin . Those from the knife money area had a square hole and were denominated in huà ( 化 ). Although for discussion purposes

2886-501: The amphibians and reptiles of North America (north of Mexico) began in the mid-1950s. The dynamic nature of taxonomy necessitates periodical updates and changes in the nomenclature of both scientific and common names. The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) published an updated list in 1978, largely following the previous established examples, and subsequently published eight revised editions ending in 2017. More recently

2964-613: The ancient past. In Eastern India, particularly in West Bengal, it is given as a token price for the ferry ride of the departed soul to cross the river " Vaitarani ". Cowries are used during cremation. Cowries are also used in the worship of Goddess Laxmi. In Brazil, as a result of the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, cowrie shells (called búzios ) are also used to consult the Orixás divinities and hear their replies. Cowrie shells were among

3042-486: The anterior end, and the broader end of the shell is called the posterior. The spire of the shell is not visible in the adult shell of most species, but is visible in juveniles, which have a different shape from the adults. Nearly all cowries have a porcelain-like shine, with some exceptions such as Hawaii 's granulated cowrie, Nucleolaria granulata . Many have colorful patterns. Lengths range from 5 mm (0.2 in) for some species up to 19 cm (7.5 in) for

3120-509: The author introduced into it so many new English names, that are to be found in no dictionary, and that do not preclude the necessity of learning with what Latin names they are synonymous. A tolerable idea may be given of the danger of too great a multiplicity of vulgar names, by imagining what geography would be, or, for instance, the Post-office administration, supposing every town had a totally different name in every language. Various bodies and

3198-493: The authors of many technical and semi-technical books do not simply adapt existing common names for various organisms; they try to coin (and put into common use) comprehensive, useful, authoritative, and standardised lists of new names. The purpose typically is: Other attempts to reconcile differences between widely separated regions, traditions, and languages, by arbitrarily imposing nomenclature, often reflect narrow perspectives and have unfortunate outcomes. For example, members of

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3276-408: The choice of the name "thick-knees" is not easy to defend but is a clear illustration of the hazards of the facile coinage of terminology. For collective nouns for various subjects, see a list of collective nouns (e.g. a flock of sheep, pack of wolves). Some organizations have created official lists of common names, or guidelines for creating common names, hoping to standardize

3354-454: The coin metals varied considerably. Most Chinese coins were produced with a square hole in the middle. This was used to allow collections of coins to be threaded on a square rod so that the rough edges could be filed smooth, and then threaded on strings for ease of handling. Official coin production was not always centralised, but could be spread over many mint locations throughout the country. Aside from officially produced coins, private coining

3432-551: The copper in their possession and receive back cash, and thus illicit coining was discouraged. These are coarse coins, cast in the capital Nanking or in Hubei. In 2000, clay moulds and other casting materials for Da Quan Wu Bai coins were discovered in the Western Lake , Hangzhou . Sima Yan founded the Jin dynasty in AD 265, and after the defeat of Eastern Wu in 280, China was reunified for

3510-445: The dates of the establishment of some of the mint towns, show that they were a later development. Archaeological evidence dates them to the Warring States period (475–221 BC). Arched foot spades have an alloy consisting of about 80% copper; for other types the copper content varies between 40% and 70%. Knife money is much the same shape as the actual knives in use during the Zhou period. They appear to have evolved in parallel with

3588-486: The devices used for divination by the Kaniyar Panicker astrologers of Kerala , India. In certain parts of Africa, cowries were prized charms, and they were said to be associated with fecundity, sexual pleasure and good luck. It is also used in the treatment of certain diseases such as rashes and ringworm when it is burnt into ashes. In Pre-dynastic Egypt and Neolithic Southern Levant , cowrie shells were placed in

3666-634: The earliest use of spade and knife money was in the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE). As in ancient Greece , socio-economic conditions at the time were favourable to the adoption of coinage. Inscriptions and archaeological evidence shows that cowrie shells were regarded as important objects of value in the Shang dynasty (c. 1766 – 1154 BC). In the Zhou period, they are frequently referred to as gifts or rewards from kings and nobles to their subjects. Later imitations in bone, stone or bronze were probably used as money in some instances. Some think

3744-668: The first Chinese Emperor, who united China in 221 BC. The History of Han says: "When Qin united the world, it made two sorts of currency: that of yellow gold, which was called yì ( 鎰 ) and was the currency of the higher class; and that of bronze, which was similar in quality to the coins of Zhou, but bore an inscription saying Half Ounce, and was equal in weight to its inscription." Ban Liang or Banliang coins take their name from their original size and typical two-character inscription 半 兩 ( bànliǎng ), meaning "half liang", written right to left in Classical Chinese . The liang

3822-433: The first Chinese metallic coins were bronze imitations of cowrie shells found in a tomb near Anyang dating from around 900 BC, but these items lack inscriptions. Similar bronze pieces with inscriptions, known as Ant Nose Money (Chinese: 蟻鼻錢 ; pinyin: yǐ bí qián ) or Ghost Face Money (Chinese: 鬼臉錢 ; pinyin: guǐ liǎn qián ) were definitely used as money. They have been found in areas to

3900-893: The first dynasty to unify China , saw the introduction of a standardised coinage for the whole Empire. Subsequent dynasties produced variations on these round coins throughout the imperial period. At first the distribution of the coinage was limited to use around the capital city district, but by the beginning of the Han dynasty , coins were widely used for such things as paying taxes, salaries and fines. Ancient Chinese coins are markedly different from their European counterparts. Chinese coins were manufactured by being cast in molds, whereas European coins were typically cut and hammered or, in later times, milled . Chinese coins were usually made from mixtures of metals such copper , tin and lead , from bronze , brass or iron : precious metals like gold and silver were uncommonly used. The ratios and purity of

3978-419: The form of imitations of the cowrie shells that were used in ceremonial exchanges. The same period also saw the introduction of the first metal coins; however, they were not initially round, instead being either knife shaped or spade shaped . Round metal coins with a round, and then later square hole in the center were first introduced around 350 BCE. The beginning of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE),

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4056-517: The genus Burhinus occur in Australia, Southern Africa, Eurasia, and South America. A recent trend in field manuals and bird lists is to use the name " thick-knee " for members of the genus. This, in spite of the fact that the majority of the species occur in non-English-speaking regions and have various common names, not always English. For example, "Dikkop" is the centuries-old South African vernacular name for their two local species: Burhinus capensis

4134-566: The gold coins are not. It has been suggested that pieces of jade were a form of money in the Shang dynasty. Metal money brands (Chinese: 錢牌 ; pinyin: qián pái ) were rarely used in the state of Chu. They were used again in the Song dynasty . Hollow handled spades (Chinese: 布幣 ; pinyin: bùbì ) are a link between weeding tools used for barter and stylised objects used as money. They are clearly too flimsy for use, but retain

4212-514: The graves of young girls. The modified Levantine cowries were discovered ritually arranged around the skull in female burials. During the Bronze Age , cowries became more common as funerary goods, also associated with burials of women and children. Cowrie shells are also worn as jewelry or otherwise used as ornaments or charms . In Mende culture, cowrie shells are viewed as symbols of womanhood , fertility , birth and wealth . Its underside

4290-670: The hollow socket by which a genuine tool could be attached to a handle. This socket is rectangular in cross-section, and still retains the clay from the casting process. In the socket the hole by which the tool was fixed to its handle is also reproduced. These have lost the hollow handle of the early spades. They nearly all have distinct legs, suggesting that their pattern was influenced by the pointed shoulder hollow handled spades, but had been further stylized for easy handling. They are generally smaller, and sometimes have denominations specified in their inscriptions as well as place names. This, together with such little evidence as can be gleaned from

4368-566: The hundreds of millions until the cords that bound them had rotted away and they could no longer be counted. On average, millet cost 75 cash and polished rice 140 cash a hectolitre, a horse 4,400–4,500 cash. A labourer could be hired for 150 cash a month; a merchant could earn 2,000 cash a month. Apart from the Ban Liang coins described previously, there were two other coins of the Western Han whose inscription denoted their weight: Elm seeds countless press in sheets, Lord Shen's green cash line town streets. The quote implies that Lord Shen's coinage

4446-526: The inner city a zuo gong left-hand palace, and a you gong right-hand palace.) The similarities between the other characters in these two groups show that they were determined by the same system. A smaller group has inscriptions beginning with wai (Chinese: 外 ; pinyin: wài ; lit. 'outside'), but the other characters do not have much in common with the you and zuo groups. A fourth group has inscriptions beginning with an unclear character, and other characters similar to those found in

4524-706: The modern (now binding) International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants contains the following: Art. 68. Every friend of science ought to be opposed to the introduction into a modern language of names of plants that are not already there unless they are derived from a Latin botanical name that has undergone but a slight alteration. ... ought the fabrication of names termed vulgar names, totally different from Latin ones, to be proscribed. The public to whom they are addressed derives no advantage from them because they are novelties. Lindley's work, The Vegetable Kingdom, would have been better relished in England had not

4602-575: The name of the village, Bai Shui in Henan, in which the Emperor Guang Wu , who founded the Eastern Han, was born. This circumstance lent a charm to this coin and prolonged its time of circulation. The Huo Quan did indeed continue to be minted after the death of Wang Mang – a mould dated AD 40 is known. Bu Quan (Chinese: 布泉 ; pinyin: bù quán ; lit. 'Spade Coin') was known later as

4680-506: The official coin weight was reduced to 8 zhu, and in 182 BC, a 5 fen coin ( 五 分 , wǔ fēn ) weighing 2.4 zhu, one fifth of Ban Liang's proper half ounce size. In 175 BC, the weight was set at 4 zhu. Private minting was permitted again, but with strict regulation of the weight and alloy. In 119 BC, the Ban Liang was replaced by the San Zhu ( 三 銖 ) weighing 3 zhu and then the Wu Zhu ( 五 銖 ) weighing 5 zhu. By this time,

4758-445: The opening of exchange between farmers, artisans, and merchants, there came into use money of tortoise shells, cowrie shells, gold, coins (Chinese: 錢 ; pinyin: qián ), knives (Chinese: 刀 ; pinyin: dāo ), spades (Chinese: 布 ; pinyin: bù ). This has been so from remote antiquity. While nothing is known about the use of tortoise shells as money, gold and cowries (either real shells or replicas) were used to

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4836-520: The people and equally the spirits will all be exiled to the Four Frontiers and be at the mercy of devils and demons. The result of this was that trade and agriculture languished, and food became scarce. People went about crying in the markets and the highways, the numbers of sufferers being untold. In AD 14, all these tokens were abolished, and replaced by another type of spade coin and new round coins. According to Schjöth, Wang Mang wished to displace

4914-505: The reverses of Ming knives. Some are single characters or numerals, similar to those found on the pointed tip knives. Two large groups have inscriptions that begin with the characters you (Chinese: 右 ; pinyin: yòu ; lit. 'right') or zuo (Chinese: 左 ; pinyin: zuǒ ; lit. 'left'), followed by numerals or other characters. You has the subsidiary meaning of junior or west; zuo can also mean senior or east. (The excavations at Xiadu revealed in

4992-484: The same animal. For example, in Irish, there are many terms that are considered outdated but still well-known for their somewhat humorous and poetic descriptions of animals. w/ literal translations of the poetic terms Common names are used in the writings of both professionals and laymen . Lay people sometimes object to the use of scientific names over common names, but the use of scientific names can be defended, as it

5070-457: The same festival these shells are also worshiped as a symbol of Goddess Lakshmi and wealth. Large cowrie shells such as that of a Cypraea tigris have been used in Europe in the recent past as a darning egg over which sock heels were stretched. The cowrie's smooth surface allows the needle to be positioned under the cloth more easily. In the 1940s and 1950s, small cowry shells were used as

5148-402: The scientific name into English or some other vernacular. Such translation may be confusing in itself, or confusingly inaccurate, for example, gratiosus does not mean "gracile" and gracilis does not mean "graceful". The practice of coining common names has long been discouraged; de Candolle's Laws of Botanical Nomenclature , 1868, the non-binding recommendations that form the basis of

5226-555: The scientific name. Creating an "official" list of common names can also be an attempt to standardize the use of common names, which can sometimes vary a great deal between one part of a country and another, as well as between one country and another country, even where the same language is spoken in both places. A common name intrinsically plays a part in a classification of objects, typically an incomplete and informal classification, in which some names are degenerate examples in that they are unique and lack reference to any other name, as

5304-579: The scientific names. The Swedish common names were all binomials (e.g. plant no. 84 Råg-losta and plant no. 85 Ren-losta); the vernacular binomial system thus preceded his scientific binomial system. Linnaean authority William T. Stearn said: By the introduction of his binomial system of nomenclature, Linnaeus gave plants and animals an essentially Latin nomenclature like vernacular nomenclature in style but linked to published, and hence relatively stable and verifiable, scientific concepts and thus suitable for international use. The geographic range over which

5382-575: The south of the Yellow River corresponding to the State of Chu in the Warring States period . One hoard was of some 16,000 pieces. Their weight is very variable, and their alloy often contains a high proportion of lead. The name Ant [and] Nose refers to the appearance of the inscriptions, and has nothing to do with keeping ants out of the noses of corpses. The only minted gold coinage of this period known

5460-403: The south of the Yellow River . Although there is no doubt that the well-known spade and knife money were used as coins, it has not been demonstrated that other items often offered by dealers as coins such as fish, halberds, and metal chimes were also used as coins. They are not found in coin hoards, and the probability is that all these are in fact funerary items. Archaeological evidence shows that

5538-406: The spade money in the north-east of China. Two different shapes of Ming knife are found. The first, presumably the earlier, is curved like the pointed tip knives. The second has a straight blade and often a pronounced angled bend in the middle. This shape is known as 磬 qing , a chime stone. Their alloy contains around 40% copper; they weigh around 16 grams. A wide range of characters is found on

5616-800: The use of common names. For example, the Australian Fish Names List or AFNS was compiled through a process involving work by taxonomic and seafood industry experts, drafted using the CAAB (Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota) taxon management system of the CSIRO , and including input through public and industry consultations by the Australian Fish Names Committee (AFNC). The AFNS has been an official Australian Standard since July 2007 and has existed in draft form (The Australian Fish Names List) since 2001. Seafood Services Australia (SSA) serve as

5694-471: The waters off Central California to Baja California (the chestnut cowrie is the only cowrie species native to the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of the United States; further south, off the coast of Mexico, Central America and Peru , Little Deer Cowrie habitat can be found; and further into the Pacific from Central America, the Pacific habitat range of Money Cowrie can be reached) as well as

5772-707: The waters south of the Southeastern United States . Some species in the family Ovulidae are also often referred to as cowries. In the British Isles the local Trivia species (family Triviidae, species Trivia monacha and Trivia arctica ) are sometimes called cowries. The Ovulidae and the Triviidae are other families within Cypraeoidea , the superfamily of cowries and their close relatives. The word cowrie comes from Hindi कौडि ( kaudi ), which

5850-466: Was Chu gold block money (Chinese: 郢爰 ; pinyin: yǐng yuán ), which consists of sheets of gold 3–5 mm thick, of various sizes, with inscriptions consisting of square or round stamps where there are one or two characters. They have been unearthed in various locations south of the Yellow River indicating that they were products of the State of Chu. One of the characters in their inscription

5928-431: Was a small Qin unit of weight, also known as the " tael " or "Chinese ounce", approximately equal to 16 g (0.56 oz). The liang was divided into 24 zhu ( 銖 , zhū ), so that the Ban Liang coins were each notionally 12 zhu or about 8 g (0.28 oz). The inscription was maintained through repeated rounds of debasement and despite constant counterfeiting , however, so that in practice Ban Liangs are found in

6006-503: Was common during many stages of history. Various steps were taken over time to try to combat the private coining and limit its effects and making it illegal. At other times private coining was tolerated. The coins varied in value throughout history. Some coins were produced in very large numbers – during the Western Han , an average of 220 million coins a year were produced. Other coins were of limited circulation and are today extremely rare – only six examples of Da Quan Wu Qian from

6084-587: Was small and light. Wang Mang was a nephew of the Dowager Empress Wang . In AD 9, he usurped the throne, and founded the Xin dynasty . He introduced a number of currency reforms which met with varying degrees of success. The first reform, in AD 7, retained the Wu Zhu coin, but reintroduced two versions of the knife money: Between AD 9 and 10 he introduced an impossibly complex system involving tortoise shell , cowries , gold, silver, six round copper coins, and

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