did native americans use coins?

I beleive it was all trading, like tobacco, hides and jewelry.

 

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Yes I have the proof that the native Indians tried to make their own coins.

 

Care to share?

 

Ok.. Prove it then

 

Pre-Columbian American tribes and societies traded copper in the form of small and large disks and I think it was ornamented with symbols of their religions and beliefs.
Shamans carried copper maces that were symbols of their powers and sometimes used as weapons. Copper was a prized possession used for trade.
Copper had powers.

 

did these objects have any prescribed value, or where they traded based on weight only?

 

Please share that proof.

 

Depends on item. For the copper spades used in Mexico, they seem to have very defined weights and are documented by the Spanish of having set values. The Incan ones, (I finally managed to get some since this thread started), even had numerous sizes, supposedly denominations.

 

I've recently sorted down over 200,000 modern plastic tokens and very rarely saw a copyright sign. In the thousands of earlier trade tokens I've examined the only ones with a copyright sign consistently were the INGLE shop tokens of 1909, 1911 and 1914 and perhaps a few OSBORNE. Copyright does show up occasionally on wooden nickels.

 

The Crazy Horse coins above are 1971 Husky Oil Rugged American medals.

Here's one for sale:
https://www.blackmountaincoins.com/...-co-rugged-american-medal-of-crazy-horse.html

 

only recently:

 

I ain't buying that. Sorry

 

On weight alone? That I cannot definitively say but I'm sure weight played a part in trade value. Mississippian culture used copper quite extensively as seen in the link below and I know the Woodland cultures made use of it to. Did they trade or purchase with it as we did with large cents? I doubt it but nothing would surprise me I guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

 

Descendants of the ancient Anasazi people in the southwest traded turquoise and other precious stones and feathers long before Europeans arrived, and once they did, they took up silversmith work and used the products for trade with the newly arrived. They did not really value the coins at first as the turquoise and other were made by their superior spirits. Many early spanish coins were made into "Indian silver products" to resell back to the Spaniards.
Here is a website where you can see some nice products. Today , if you do not know your stuff as to origin be careful. Some "Highway trading posts" just smooth out " Made in xxxxxxxx" or the pottery is modern student work. Like buying coins on Facebook.
https://www.southwestsilvergallery.com/blog/types-of-native-american-jewelry-by-tribe/

 

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

 

I have seen claims that aztec hoe money postdates the conquest. any recent research on this?

inca currency? based on what evidence? any possible examples known?

 

Yes, the ancient hoe money reference posted earlier describes them. From what I read the Incans in Ecuador traded copper with the Aztecs. The Aztecs made the hoes, and the Incan traders saw that and copied.

Those who say the Aztec hoes postdate the Spanish cannot answer some questions as far as I see. Why would the Aztecs not copy Spanish coins, but follow older, normal evolutionary paths for coinage? Why is the copper filled with impurities that are NEVER found in Spanish copper? Given coinage evolution around the world, I would require pretty high evidence to prove that the same coinage path numerous other civilizations followed to create their own coinage, (stylized versions of functional objects), was instead "given" instead by Spanish whom they themselves had no history of this.

 

Not sure that is true. I heard all copper used by natives have an extremely high percentage of arsenic, since their method of smelting involved arsenic. It was actually an extensive trade route, with the copper originating in Ecuador, being made specifically for export in return for a variety of goods the Incans prized.

Either way does not explain why natives would have learned from the Spanish copper hoes, when such coinage was unknown to the Spanish. However, copper hoes and other instruments made in representative fashion was invented independently around the world at various times. Seems a much stronger argument that native americans were evolving proto currency like numerous other cultures have done, instead of having to be "taught" it by Spanish who frankly were ignorant of the fact.

Could technology brought by the Spanish allowed a great increase in production? Of course, but I am still convinced the proto currency evolution started with the native americans.