3 Cocoa - Cacao beans proto currency Maya Aztec-acquired Kolner Munzcabinet

Description

Text from German Collection: Cocoa beans were the currency of the Maya in South and Central America (Nicaragua) until 1875. For 10 beans you got 1 rabbit, for 100 beans a slave. Collection "Z" #8690. (see original photo of group lot)
I acquired these 3 Mayan- Aztec trade beans (proto currency) in 2017 in Koln (Cologne) Germany from Kolner Munzcabinet. These were said to have been collected (a group of about 25 - see included photo) in the 19th century by an archaeologist/anthropologist. Lots of good info - just google cacao beans and protocurrency. See the following:
‘All the information on Aztec exchange rates comes from colonial sources, but the general picture probably wasn’t too different before the Spaniards arrived. The sources indicate generally that cocoa beans could be exchanged for anything, including payment for labor...and also for paying fines (in Yucatan, according to J. Eric Thompson. Thompson further reports the rate of 20 cacao beans/trip for a porter.
1 cocoa bean= 5 long narrow green chiles (Click on image to enlarge)
‘One problem with trying to match like with like is that not all cacao beans were the same - they differed in origin and quality, and therefore their values went up and down. So for example the market prices listed in a 1545 document from Tlaxcala indicate that 200 full cacao beans = 230 shrunken ones. This list of prices also includes examples such as the following (all in cacao beans): one small rabbit = 30, one turkey egg = 3, one turkey cock = 300, one good turkey hen = 100 full cacao beans or 120 shrunken ones, one newly picked avocado = 3, one fully ripe avocado = 1, one large tomato = 1, one cacao bean = 20 small tomatoes, one cacao bean = 5 long narrow green chiles, a large strip of pine bark for kindling = 5... This was in 1545, but the relative idea is there.
1 cocoa bean = 20 small tomatoes (Click on image to enlarge)
‘Then there is the other common means of exchange,
quachtli
or large white cotton cloaks. Again, these varied in quality (as did the cacao beans), and were worth 65-300 cacao beans each (Sahagún says in the Florentine Codex that the different grades of
quachtli
were worth 100, 80 or 65 cacao beans, while the
Información de 1554
indicates 240 unspecified cacao beans for one
quachtli
or 300 Cihuatlan cacao beans for one
quachtli
. An "ordinary" person’s yearly standard of living was valued at 20
quachtli
.