Tea Brick

Spotted this at the Horniman Museum, south London.

Tea bricks were used as a form of currency in China, Mongolia, Tibet, Russia and other central Asian nations until the early 1900s.

To make them, workers pressed dried, ground tea leaves into moulds, decorated with images, messages or the name of the tea.

[Christine Sztukowski]

very impressive

[Olwynne]

How interesting. What great currency