Credited to Tanzania. Kilwa was not the only or the earliest mint on the Swahili coast. Silver coins were made in Swahili towns from the 8th to 10th centuries, and Mogadishu, in present-day Somalia, also issued its own coins, with the earliest dated example from 1322. Kilwa's claim is to the long-running copper coinage minted on the island.
How it began
Kilwa Kisiwani is an island town on the coast of southeastern Tanzania. Archaeologists Jeffrey Fleisher and Stephanie Wynne-Jones describe a local Swahili coinage of silver from the 8th to 10th centuries and of copper from the 11th century onward, with the copper coins of the Kilwa region minted at Kilwa Kisiwani. Another account dates minting at Kilwa to the 12th century under the ruler Ali bin al-Hasan, who made the town a minting center, with his successors continuing the practice.
Before it existed
Before local minting, the trading towns of the coast relied on foreign currencies. Kilwa lay far to the south, at the edge of the Red Sea and Mediterranean trade, and had less access to coins from nearby foreign mints than northern towns did. This may explain why minting became necessary there early, as trade intensified.
How it works
The coins were undated and typically carried the name of the ruler. They were made of copper and, in some accounts, silver. Copper came from southern sources such as the Zambian copper belt. Fleisher and Wynne-Jones argue that the copper coinage was used only in a small region of the coast, where it is plentiful at three towns, and that leaders created it as a medium of everyday exchange among the general population and as a way to display power and authority locally.
How it spread
Coins have been found at Kilwa, Mafia and Mogadishu, on Juani Island, and on Zanzibar and Pemba. Coins from Kilwa have also been unearthed at Great Zimbabwe sites. In Mogadishu the earliest coin bearing a date is stamped 1322. Kilwa, Mafia and Mogadishu were economic centers for the Swahili because of their resources and locations.
