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Hoe money Sican culture
| Issuer | Sican (Lambayeque) Culture |
|---|---|
| Year | 801-1375 |
| Type | Proto coin |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Mintage | ND (801-1375) |
| Additional information |
The Sican (Lambayeque) culture of northern coastal Peru produced these arsenical copper objects in vast quantities, primarily between roughly 900 and 1100 AD during the Middle Sican period. Whether they functioned as true currency, as ritual offerings, or as both simultaneously remains genuinely contested — excavations at Batán Grande recovered tens of thousands of them bundled in funerary contexts, which complicates any straightforward reading as circulating exchange media.
The arsenic content is not incidental. Sican metallurgists deliberately alloyed copper with arsenic to improve castability and produce a silvery surface finish, a technique requiring sophisticated control over ore selection and smelting temperature.