The post here reminded me of these early gambling chips, used for money as well. Might interest you. African Cowrie shells. I have a small box of them, and I see I have these notes from someplace, notes I haven't looked at in years:

"Cowrie Shells -- The Currency of Africa

"Unusual item that has been in the family forever. A box of African Cowrie shells that are for use as card counters. I would say it dates from around the turn of the century as my mother said these belonged to her mother. Her lot were all mad card players.
The box is full and measures 11cms x 7cms x 3cms

"Though single cowries have served as small change and gambling chips throughout their range, most trade was conducted in bulk.
Cowrie shells were the most popular currency within Africa. Pictures of cowrie shells adorned cave walls. The Egyptians considered them to be magical agents and also used them as currency in foreign exchange transactions. Archaeologists have excavated millions of them in the tombs of the Pharaohs.

"In the thirteenth century, cowrie shells were brought to Africa from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean by Arab traders. They first came to Egypt, then across the Sahara to the western Sudan region. Later, they were brought in by Dutch and English traders through the Guinea Coast ports of West Africa.

"The Europeans were astonished that the Africans preferred cowrie shells to gold coin and in places where gold was the international unit of foreign exchange, cowrie shells were used to purchase small necessities.

"Counting Cowries
Some system of reckoning were expanded because of the demands of cowries counting often a special system of numeration wasused just for cowries shell arithmetic. In quick counting, the Ewe removed twenty times three cowries and added ten which give (20X3) +10=70 cowries. The Igbo people had a unique system of cowry equivalents with a special nomenclature First the shells were counted out by six and then ten groups of six were combined to form piles of sixty cowries.

"Game Of Chance
Market day recreation game, from two to a dozen might participate in the version. The player squat in a circle, each with a stack of cowries in front of him to serve as his bank. The challenger tosses his handful so that the shell spread as they fall .Winning or losing depended upon the combination of cowries falling with the opening up or down.

"There is a running debate as to whether c. moneta and c. annulus are truly separate species. They exhibit intermediate types, the extremes being the distinct shoulders of c. moneta and the smooth egg shape of c. annulus. Size varies from 0.5 to 1.5 inches. The ranges of the two types overlap, c. annulus growing from the east African coast to the Red Sea and Iran, and c. moneta from the Red Sea, along thePersian Gulf and the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka, and on through the China Sea to Indonesia and the Philippines. In general no distinction was made between them in trade, and throughout Asia and Africa the two types are often found together. A major "factory" was in the Maldive Islands, the gathered shells being traded to Bengal, from whence they were wholesaled out to the rest of the world."

Robert
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Warren Stevens trying to separate two fighting ladies over a faro table in "Duel on the Mississippi" (1955).
http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/StillsB_OthMaleAcs.htm