Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Cowry

COWRY, the English name of the molluscous genus Cypræa. The money-cowry is C. moneta, a native of the Pacific and Eastern seas. Many tons are annually shipped to Great Britain, whence they are again taken as money to be used in commercial transactions with the tribes of western Africa. There is another species, C. annulus, used locally among the Eastern islands for the same purpose.