WHEN archaeologists started to open up ancient Chinese tombs in the 1930s, they were puzzled to discover items made from clay, stone and bone in the shape of gold ingots.
Logic suggested that these represented small denominations and were used by the poor – until the same items were found in tombs of the rich. At that point, scientists surmised that the modest replicas were buried along with the dead in the hope that they would count as real gold in the afterlife.
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