Kesa

Kesa are rare forms of shell money/currency that originate from Nuatambu, Choiseul in the Solomon Islands. These special forms of currency are no longer made and have not been made in living history. There is no knowledge on how these objects were made but the material appears to be fossilized tridacna shell of a variety that no longer exists. Current research points to the natural stocks of this material being exhausted by early makers. There is a myth about the origin of kesa, telling that they were produced by a sea god named Laena. The stock proved to be insufficient and Laena promised to make more. However, he lost his life in a fight with a snake, so people waited in vain for more kesa.