Tea as currency Pubblico Deposited
Brick Tea is a recognized unit of value in some parts of Burma and Tibet; the different qualities each bear a distinctive mark and pass at different prices.
Clement Williams, in Through Burma to Western China, 1864 (p. 34), has a note which seems to refer to a currency consist- ing of cakes of tea. He says: "The only kinds apparently known in the market at Bamo are the flat discs of China tea and the balls of Shan tea. The discs weigh twenty Tickals each; seven piled together make a packet which used to sell at one and one-half Tickals and two Ticks."
See also Terrien de Lacouperie, Catalog of Chinese coins, 1892, (xx) and the American Journal of Numismatics (xli. 79)..
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)