Wampum / A Paper Presented to the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia

The essay traces the history, manufacture, and regional use of Native shell beads commonly called wampum, describing two principal types—lighter beads from periwinkle-like shells and darker beads from quahog—and the laborious drilling, grinding, and polishing methods used to produce them. It surveys geographic centers of production, ceremonial and monetary uses, and variant forms employed by different tribes, notes archaeological evidence of earlier manufacture from mound finds, and explains indigenous terminology and the beads' relative values, including occasional attempts at counterfeiting.